beet (2), beat

[O. Sw. bylte = a bundle; bit a = to bind up.] A sheaf or bundle. ( Scotch.) Beat of lint: A sheaf or bundle of flax as made up for the mill. "The first row of the lint is put in slop-ways, with the crop-end downward, all the rest with the root-end downward; the crop of the subsequent beats or sheaves still overlapping the band of the former."- Maxwell : Sel. Transact., p. 330.