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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

“Oh, that’s okay,” I said, trying to slip away, but she waved me over, insisting I take the money she pulled from a small, beat-up change purse and worked into my hand.

From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx

Barron Trump, 19, contacted UK police from the US after allegedly seeing his friend being "beat up" during a video call last year.

From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2026

“I would say that our agent is beat up, he’s bruised, he’s injured, he’s getting treatment,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters Thursday, saying the agency was “thankful that he made it out alive.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026

It’s beat up and old, and smells like incense.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025

Semiconductor stocks got beat up Tuesday, as did other companies tied to the AI trade.

From Barron's ● Nov. 19, 2025

I had two things wrong with me that would have gotten me beat up and teased a lot more than I did if it hadn’t been for By.

From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Related Words

• batter