Beat Generation

or beat gen·er·a·tion

[ beet-jen-uh-rey-shuhn ]

noun

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.

Origin of Beat Generation

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

Words Nearby Beat Generation

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Beat Generation in a sentence

In 1979 I published Desolate Angel/Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America.
Kerouac Biographer Gets Back on the Road | Dennis McNally | October 2, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Kate Bosworth talks finding love on set, Beat Generation style, and her latest collaboration with Topshop.
Kate Bosworth Is Back and Crazy in Love | Erin Cunningham | November 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Joyce Johnson is one of the few surviving writers of the Beat Generation, and perhaps one of the most underappreciated.
You Don’t Know Jack: Kerouac Biographer Joyce Johnson and ‘The Voice Is All’ | Lauren Du Graf | September 16, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for Beat Generation

Beat Generation

noun(functioning as singular or plural)

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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