Word.ws English Dictionary

beating one's breast

beating one's breast is the present participle and gerund of beat one's breast.

Meaning of beat one's breast

Verb

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

  1. (figuratively) To ostentatiously display remorse, sorrow, or upset.

Questions about beating one's breast

What is beating one's breast the present participle and gerund of?
Beating one's breast is the present participle and gerund of beat one's breast.

Words near beating one's breast in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beating one's breast (page history and authors); beat one's breast (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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