beat into fits

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English[edit]

Verb[edit]

beat into fits (third-person singular simple present beats into fits, present participle beating into fits, simple past beat into fits, past participle beaten into fits)

  1. (transitive, slang) To surpass or defeat utterly.
    • 1845, Sporting Magazine, volume 5, page 378:
      I do not mean to say Sir Hercules could in a walk carry as much flour as a miller's horse; but he would beat him into fits, and bring him to a stand still, with 17st. on each of their backs in a gallop […]
    • 1886, Elizabeth Lynn Linton, Paston Carew, Millionaire and Miser, page 175:
      We shall be beaten into fits, for the child plays like an angel, as she does everything, and I am only a clumsy little imp, as you know.

References[edit]

  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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