n. 1. An act of repeated hitting or striking.
2. a. A thorough defeat, as in an athletic contest.
b. A sharp reversal; a setback: Stocks took a beating from panicky investors.
3. An instance of rough or injurious treatment: The car took a beating on that rough road.
4. A throbbing or pulsation, as of the heart.
5. Physics The periodic variation in amplitude of a wave, especially that produced by the superposition of two waves of different frequencies, resulting in segments of more intense and then less intense wave phenomena, such as louder and then quieter sound.