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• beat-up
  beat-up

  adjective

  dilapidated; in poor condition from use.
• beat up
  beat up

  verb

  (tr, adverb) to strike or kick (a person), usually repeatedly, so as to inflict severe physical damage

beat-up

American  

[beet-uhp] / ˈbitˈʌp /

adjective

1. Informal. dilapidated; in poor condition from use.

   a beat-up old jalopy.

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noun

1. the warpwise count of tufts of pile in the warp of carpets.

beat up British  

verb

1. (tr, adverb) to strike or kick (a person), usually repeatedly, so as to inflict severe physical damage

2. informal to reproach oneself

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adjective

1. worn-out; dilapidated

beat up Idioms  

1. Strike repeatedly, as in She told the police her husband had beaten her up . [ Slang ; first half of 1900s]

2. Also, beat up on . Attack verbally, as in That newspaper article really beat up on the town council . [ Slang ; late 1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of beat-up

First recorded in 1935–40; adj., noun use of verb phrase beat up

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

beat-up beat up

If there are racecars, sports cars, and beat-up jalopies alike, are the cars born into their occupation?

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026

Neighboring towns looked down on its working-class residents and the beat-up motels along Beach Boulevard, which cleaves the city in half.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

By high school it was Dr. Dre, bass rattling the rearview mirror of my beat-up white Monte Carlo—raw, confrontational, impossible to ignore.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026

This should provide a badly needed injection of adrenaline to the beat-up small business sector.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 8, 2026

When they got to Lily’s car—a beat-up Ford Ranger—Toby couldn’t wait any longer.

From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss

On the flip side, he said, they keep getting beat up by the ocean and costing taxpayers millions of dollars to repair or replace.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

“Oh gosh, we’re just getting beat up over this,” Assemblywoman Maureen Hall said, rain pattering her car while she sat parked next to one of the historic homes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

The success of the bearded, ass-kicking Ranger marked a stunning reversal of fortune for Norris, who grew up a shy, unathletic child, who "used to daydream about being strong...to beat up the bullies".

From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026

Paul, meanwhile, admitted he "got beat up" but insisted he will come back and target a cruiserweight world title.

From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025

I think about skirting around them to get to class, but then I notice Alex in the middle of all those boys, and I can’t let Bernard beat up on my friend.

From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée

Related Words

• batter