beatniks

Cultural  

1. Members of the “beat” movement in the United States in the 1950s. Beatniks frequently rejected middle-class American values, customs, and tastes in favor of radical politics and exotic jazz, art, and literature. The movement was often classified as bohemian. The poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist Jack Kerouac are examples of beatnik authors.

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“Daddy-O” (a term of address); “Cool, man, cool”; and “strictly dullsville” are examples of slang expressions used by beatniks or by people trying to sound like beatniks.

Example Sentences

The video opens with fog and mountains, Pacific Ocean waves crashing into majestic cliffs and the Golden Gate Bridge before mixing in historic images of streetcars, beatniks, retailer Gap, Apple and Google.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 19, 2023

I also omitted "beatniks" from his list of groups he believed were seeking to destroy the country.

From Salon • Aug. 6, 2023

On its website, the venue recalled the event as one “where beatniks met the emerging hippie culture.”

From New York Times • May 25, 2023

The OED traced the origin of woke’s newer definition to a 1962 New York Times article by Black author William Melvin Kelley describing how white beatniks were appropriating Black slang at the time.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 29, 2023

A few people had gotten it right, in black turtlenecks and thrifted finds that cut a convincing impression of what people were wearing the night she decided that actually beatniks were the Worst.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny