Word.ws English Dictionary

taking a beat

taking a beat is the present participle and gerund of take a beat.

Meaning of take a beat

Verb

take a beat (third-person singular simple present takes a beat, present participle taking a beat, simple past took a beat, past participle taken a beat)

  1. To pause and take a moment to collect your thoughts, calm down, or regain composure before reacting.
    • “Breathe a minute. Relax. Say the magic words: you need to take a beat, and then you'll circle back.”2020, Samantha Jayne, “Surviving the Office” (1:20 from the start), in Quarter Life Poetry, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Samantha Jayne (Samantha Jayne)

Questions about taking a beat

What is taking a beat the present participle and gerund of?
Taking a beat is the present participle and gerund of take a beat.

Words near taking a beat in the dictionary

  1. taking
  2. taking (something) to
  3. taking a back seat
  4. taking a bath
  5. taking a bead on
  6. taking a beat
  7. taking a bite
  8. taking a bite out of
  9. taking a bow
  10. taking a break
  11. taking a breath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking a beat (page history and authors); take a beat (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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Cite this entry: “taking a beat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_a_beat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.