Beat Generation

American  

[beet jen-uh-rey-shuhn] / ˈbit ˌdʒɛn əˈreɪ ʃən /

Or beat generation

noun

1. members of the generation that came of age after World War II who, supposedly as a result of disillusionment stemming from the Cold War, embraced forms of mysticism and the relaxation of social and sexual inhibitions.

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Beat Generation British  

noun

1. members of the generation that came to maturity in the 1950s, whose rejection of the social and political systems of the West was expressed through contempt for regular work, possessions, traditional dress, etc, and espousal of anarchism, communal living, drugs, etc

2. a group of US writers, notably Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs, who emerged in the 1950s

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Etymology

Origin of Beat Generation

First recorded in 1950–55; apparently from beat ( def. ), though the sense intended by earliest users of the phrase is not clear; the association with beatitude ( def. ) later made by Jack Kerouac is probably fanciful

Example Sentences

He was friendly with Bateson, and he and Mead made a radio show about the Beat Generation.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 12, 2024

He spent his first day walking aimlessly until he stumbled on Caffe Reggio, a Greenwich Village institution that was once a gathering spot for bohemians and Beat Generation poets.

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2022

In 1997, Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture guru who shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70.

From Washington Times • Apr. 5, 2021

What I love to read is the Beat Generation.

From Salon • Oct. 14, 2020

At the age of eighteen, propelled by his admiration for the Beat Generation of writers, he moved out of his parents’ house and into the city itself.

From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman