Beat

A track, line, or appointed range. A walk often trodden or beaten by the feet, as a policeman’s boat. The word means a beaten path.

Not in my beat. Not in my line; not in the range of my talents or inclination.

Off his beat. Not on duty; not in his appointed walk; not his speciality or line.

“Off his own beat his opinions were of no value.”—Emerson: English Traitt, chap. i.

On his beat. In his appointed walk; on duty.

Out of his beat. In his wrong walk; out of his proper sphere.

To beat up one’s quarters. To hunt out where one lives; to visit without ceremony. A military term, signifying to make an unexpected attack on an enemy in camp.

“To beat up the quarters of some of our less-known relations.”—Lamb: Essays of Elia.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.