beat ups

Noun

beat up (plural beat ups)

1. A person who, or thing that, has been beaten up.
   • Well, two beat ups (the bullied kids) would split that cash fifty-fifty.2009 August 10, Thomas Cody Mullenaux, Numbskull, page 257
2. (UK, slang) A raid.
   • These hit-and-run LRDG attacks — “beat-ups,” the patrols were beginning to call them — continued, and added to the enemy's mounting difficulties.1987, John W. Gordon, The Other Desert War: British Special Forces in North Africa, 1940-1943, page 86

   Synonyms:

   hazing

3. A beating; a hazing.
   • We gave him wedgies and did mock beat-ups. We never hurt him or intended to hurt him, but he went along with our tough guy sort of image, and took it tongue in cheek and got it.2008, Josh Frank, Charlie Buckholtz, In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre, page 243

   Synonyms:

   hazing

4. (Australia, New Zealand, UK) An artificially or disingenuously manufactured alarm or outcry, especially one agitated by or through the media.
   • To the people of CQ^([Central Queensland]) the Internet is nothing more than the subject of media beat ups about pornography and bomb making.1995 September, David Jones, “1000 Users on a 486”, in AUUG ′95 & Asia-Pacific World Wide Web ′95 Conference & Exhibition: Conference Proceedings, page 106
5. A tree planted later than others in a plantation.
   • The data include measurements from both the original tree plantings and subsequent beat-ups.2003, K. J. Foot, M. Hislop, S. McNeilly, “The effect of green composted waste on tree establishment on landfill”, in Heather M. Moore, Howard R. Fox, Scott Elliott, editors, Land Reclamation...

See all 17 meanings of beat up