Word.ws English Dictionary

beating a hasty retreat

beating a hasty retreat is the present participle and gerund of beat a hasty retreat.

Meaning of beat a hasty retreat

Verb

beat a hasty retreat (third-person singular simple present beats a hasty retreat, present participle beating a hasty retreat, simple past beat a hasty retreat, past participle beaten a hasty retreat)

  1. To leave as quickly as possible.
    • A few nights ago, a fair trader had commenced unloading her cargo, consisting of light goods, in the Pent, but in the midst of the operation was discovered by the Philistines, and obliged to beat a hasty retreat across the rope-walk to the sea...1827, The Times

Questions about beating a hasty retreat

What is beating a hasty retreat the present participle and gerund of?
Beating a hasty retreat is the present participle and gerund of beat a hasty retreat.

Words near beating a hasty retreat in the dictionary

  1. Beatine
  2. Beatine map
  3. Beatine maps
  4. beatinest
  5. beating
  6. beating a hasty retreat
  7. beating about
  8. beating about the bush
  9. beating all
  10. beating around the bush
  11. beating as one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beating a hasty retreat (page history and authors); beat a hasty retreat (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “beating a hasty retreat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beating_a_hasty_retreat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.