beat to

verb

beat to

verb

Etymology Shortening of beat to the punch.

1

To arrive (somewhere) more quickly (than someone else); to succeed (at something) more quickly (than someone else).

  • Zumbetel wanted to beat Yalpatel to launching the planet's first pocket-sized satellite phone.
  • I wanted to gather up all the pinecones, but you beat me to it!

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.