Definition of Beat generation

1. Noun. A United States youth subculture of the 1950s; rejected possessions or regular work or traditional dress; for communal living and psychedelic drugs and anarchism; favored modern forms of jazz (e.g., bebop).

Exact synonyms: Beatniks, Beats
Generic synonyms: Youth Subculture
Member holonyms: Beat, Beatnik

Definition of Beat generation

1. Proper noun. A group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Their most important works are Jack Kerouac's ''On the Road'' (1957), Allen Ginsberg's ''Howl'' (1956), and William S. Burroughs' ''Naked Lunch'' (1959). ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Beat Generation

beat-up
beat-ups
beat 'em up
beat 'em ups
beat Banaghan
beat a dead horse
beat a retreat
beat about
beat about the bush
beat around the bush
beat back
beat cop
beat down
beat downs
beat feet
beat generation (current term)
beat in
beat level
beat levels
beat one's brain
beat one's head against a stone wall
beat out
beat parry
beat somebody to the punch
beat someone's brains out
beat the meat

Literary usage of Beat generation

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Russian Roulette: Among Other Things by Gyeorgos Ceres Hatonn (1993)
"BEATLEMANIA AND BEATNIK beat generation Following the Beatles, who incidentally were put ... The “beat generation” cut itself off from mainstream America. ..."

2. Paris by Peter Eckerlin, Elke Pastre (2001)
"... this little street is swinging, bringing to life again the 1950's, when Saint- Germain-des-Pres was the vibrant quarter of the French beat generation. ..."

3. A Kaleidoscope of Digital American Literature by Martha L. Brogan, Daphnée Rentfrow (2005)
"... author of Offbeat; and Jack Magazine, a nonprofit e-zine publishing nonmainstream articles in honor of the beat generation and other experimentalists. ..."

4. An Inverted Sort of Prayer by Chris F. Needham (2006)
"... supplied by a certain Aimee Reid of Vanity Fair— 'Just as The Sun Also Rises did for the Lost Generation, and On the Road did for the beat generation, ..."

5. The Urban Condition: space, community, and self in the contemporary metropolis by Ghent Urban Studies Team (1999)
"... subcultures such as the beat generation (an offshoot of the urban bebop culture), punk, new wave (Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces), graffiti artists, ..."

6. California by John Gottberg (1999)
"The 1950's version of the bohemians of the previous century was the beat generation, including men like Jack Ker- ouac and Allen Ginsberg, who found in the ..."

7. Paris by Hunter Publishing, Incorporated (2001)
"... this was a famous beat generation dive where the likes of Kerouac and Ginsberg searched for 'life and love in Paris' as one contemporary recently wrote ..."

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