'Deadbeat' definitions:
Definition of 'deadbeat'
From: WordNet
noun
Someone who fails to meet a financial obligation [syn: defaulter, deadbeat]
Definition of 'Deadbeat'
From: GCIDE
- Deadbeat \Dead"beat`\, a. (Physics) Making a beat without recoil; giving indications by a single beat or excursion; -- said of galvanometers and other instruments in which the needle or index moves to the extent of its deflection and stops with little or no further oscillation. [1913 Webster]
- Deadbeat escapement. See under Escapement. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'deadbeat'
From: GCIDE
- Beat \Beat\, n.
- 1. A stroke; a blow. [1913 Webster]
- He, with a careless beat, Struck out the mute creation at a heat. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- 2. A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse. [1913 Webster]
- 3. (Mus.) (a) The rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. In the rhythm of music the beat is the unit. (b) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament. [1913 Webster]
- 4. (Acoustics & Mus.) A sudden swelling or re["e]nforcement of a sound, recurring at regular intervals, and produced by the interference of sound waves of slightly different periods of vibrations; applied also, by analogy, to other kinds of wave motions; the pulsation or throbbing produced by the vibrating together of two tones not quite in unison. See Beat, v. i., 8. [1913 Webster]
- 5. A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat; analogously, for newspaper reporters, the subject or territory that they are assigned to cover; as, the Washington beat. [1913 Webster +PJC]
- 6. A place of habitual or frequent resort. [1913 Webster]
- 7. A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; -- often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat; also, deadbeat. [Low] [1913 Webster]
- Beat of drum (Mil.), a succession of strokes varied, in different ways, for particular purposes, as to regulate a march, to call soldiers to their arms or quarters, to direct an attack, or retreat, etc.
- Beat of a watch, or Beat of a clock, the stroke or sound made by the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of beat, according as the stroke is at equal or unequal intervals. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'deadbeat'
From: GCIDE
- dead beat \dead` beat"\ (d[e^]d`b[=e]t"), deadbeat \dead"beat`\(d[e^]d"b[=e]t`). a loafer, sponger, or swindler; especially, one who does not pay his debts. Same as Beat, n., 7. [Low, U.S.] [1913 Webster]