beat time

beat time

To demonstrate the tempo and rhythm of a piece of music via metronomic actions of the body, such as clapping one's hands, tapping one's feet, nodding one's head, etc. I can't help but beat time whenever I hear a song come on the radio. I always wanted to play an instrument, but I'm not good at beating time.
See also: beat, time
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

beat time

Mark musical time by beating a drum, clapping, tapping the foot, or a similar means. For example, Even as a baby, Dave always beat time when he heard music. [Late 1600s]
See also: beat, time
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

beat ˈtime

show the rhythm of a piece of music by striking something, moving your hands, etc: She beat time with her fingers.
See also: beat, time
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • (from) top to toe
  • better (to be) safe than sorry
  • better safe than sorry
  • (one's) day in court
  • at (one's) doorstep
  • at doorstep
  • at expense
  • at somebody's expense
  • at someone's expense
  • at (one's) expense
References in classic literature
He had performed many eminent services for the crown, had great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour; but so ill an ear for music, that his detractors reported, "he had been often known to beat time in the wrong place;" neither could his tutors, without extreme difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the most easy proposition in the mathematics.
`Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.'
And indeed everybody in the room looked with a smile of pleasure at the jovial old gentleman, who standing beside his tall and stout partner, Marya Dmitrievna, curved his arms, beat time, straightened his shoulders, turned out his toes, tapped gently with his foot, and, by a smile that broadened his round face more and more, prepared the onlookers for what was to follow.
Hither she had been led by two of her disguised ravishers, and on being thrust into the little cell, she found herself in the presence of an old sibyl, who kept murmuring to herself a Saxon rhyme, as if to beat time to the revolving dance which her spindle was performing upon the floor.
He beat time with his heels on the planks of the boat and sang:
They danced so beautifully that the tall white lilies peeped in at the window and watched them, and the great red poppies nodded their heads and beat time.
He beat time with his forefinger to the singing upstairs; he asked me about my voice, and whether I sang; he remarked that life would be intolerable to him without Love and Art.
One after another they beat time absently with their fingers to the waltz which the musicians happened to be playing at the moment.
Let her footstep, as she comes and goes, in these pages, be like that other footstep to whose airy fall your own heart once beat time. Take her as the visionary nursling of your own fancy; and she will grow upon you, all the more clearly, as the living woman who dwells in mine.
He listened to himself with obvious satisfaction and sometimes gently beat time to his own music with his head or rounded a sentence with his hand.
Each 30-foot boat contains up to ten people paddling as well as a drummer to beat time and a pilot at the helm to steer a straight course.
It's not just how well you beat time, it's not just that.
"The Economic Development Board and Tamkeen are headed towards a knowledge industry where you're pushed to beat time. Training for productivity is a slow process, organizations have to increase their pace and keep on the rail in order to succeed." Dr.
Kids receive a Geox Beat Time voice-activated watch with every pair.
In order to quantify the spatiotemporal relationship between movement and beat, the phase angle of beat time was calculated (Fig.