Word.ws English Dictionary

beat one's chest

beat one's chest verb: to brag ostentatiously.

Verb

beat one's chest (third-person singular simple present beats one's chest, present participle beating one's chest, simple past beat one's chest, past participle beaten one's chest or (colloquial) beat one's chest)

  1. To brag ostentatiously.
    • beating his chest about his accomplishments
  2. Synonym of beat one's breast (“lament”).

Synonyms of beat one's chest

Forms of beat one's chest

third-person singular presentbeats one's chest
present participlebeating one's chest
pastbeat one's chest
past participlebeaten one's chest
past participle (colloquial)beat one's chest

Origin of beat one's chest

The bragging sense may have come from, and certainly connotatively evokes, the theme of gorillas beating their chests in displays of dominance, aggression, defense, or otherwise.

Questions about beat one's chest

What does beat one's chest mean?
Beat one's chest means to brag ostentatiously.
What part of speech is beat one's chest?
Beat one's chest is a verb.
What is the past tense of beat one's chest?
The past tense of beat one's chest is beat one's chest.

Words near beat one's chest in the dictionary

  1. beat on
  2. beat one's ass
  3. beat one's brain
  4. beat one's brains out
  5. beat one's breast
  6. beat one's chest
  7. beat one's face
  8. beat one's head against a stone wall
  9. beat one's meat
  10. beat one's swords into ploughshares
  11. beat one's swords into plowshares

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beat one's chest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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