Aug 3, 2022 · The phrase 'beats me hollow' as a possible precursor to 'beats me' Alternatively, "beats me" in the relevant sense may have emerged as a shortened form of the longer figurative set phrase "beats me hollow." Google Books and Hathi Trust searches turn up a number of instances of "beat[s] me hollow" from the period 1768–1810.

Feb 19, 2018 · Beats me does not necessarily have a bad connotation, or mean that the speaker thinks the question is unimportant or dumb. From Macmillian Dictionary. used for saying that you do not know or understand something ‘Why did he do such a stupid thing?’ ‘It beats me.’ The stupid thing in the example above might be very important, but mystifying.

Dec 13, 2017 · My gut response would yes to the first, no to the second. Linguistically, proper English is whatever phrase makes sense and sounds right to a native speaker, so I would say that "So I suppose Editor Bot of Tomorrow has me beaten there" conveys the same meaning, as it is already clear in the first sentence that "beat" is past tense due to the presence of "has."

May 26, 2018 · I better buy this car before someone beats me to the punch. You could also just use "beat". I wanted to buy the car, but he beat me to it. Your question might be put on hold, or get closed, since you could find the answer to this question from a simple google search. Try doing some basic research before asking questions on this site.

Feb 11, 2022 · She pipped me to the post. [PHRASE] [British, informal] If someone is pipped at the post or pipped to the post they are just beaten in a competition or in a race to achieve something. [British, informal] To defeat or succeed over someone by a very narrow margin or at the final, crucial moment, especially in a race [Farlex Dictionary of Idioms]

Oct 5, 2021 · "You beat me to it." is a contextual response that implies agreement with an answer previously stated to an open question or query. An example would be: An audience member asks a 4 person panel a question. They receive an answer from panelist #1. Panelist #2 starts out by exclaiming to panelist #1, "You beat me to it."

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Apr 13, 2015 · To my (non-native-speaker's) ear your sentence sounds perfectly fine. On the other hand "XXX changes the syntax of software while keeps the semantic equivalence" makes me cringe. I'd say that with while you need to repeat the subject. Now, why did I write an example where I both repeated the subject and changed the conjunction - beats me. If I ...

Dec 24, 2012 · When someone beats you to something by 30 seconds, it means they did something 30 seconds sooner than you. As others have already commented, you can think of it as a race, although it usually is not an official, literal race. The race to answer questions on Stack sites also counts as a race :)

Jul 8, 2011 · "Bob and Alice held their breaths." sounds correct to me. They are each holding their respective breath, so referring to plural 'breaths' actually sounds better than 'breath'. I'd say either is acceptable. –