Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - beating

(beatings) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If someone is given a beating, they are hit hard many times, especially with something such as a stick. ...the savage beating of a black motorist by white police officers... The team secured pictures of prisoners showing signs of severe beatings. N-COUNT 2. If something such as a business, a political party, or a team takes a beating, it is defeated by a large amount in a competition or election. Our firm has taken a terrible beating in recent years. N-SING: a N 3. If you say that something will take some beating, you mean that it is very good and it is unlikely that anything better will be done or made. (INFORMAL) For sheer scale and grandeur, Leeds Castle in Kent takes some beating. PHRASE: V inflects