How to Use beat-up in a Sentence

beat-up

adjective
  • The beat-up group did a nice job against Green Bay.
    — Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 2 Nov. 2025
  • Tired of wearing your old, beat-up sweats outside of the house?
    — Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 5 Sep. 2023
  • The chilly weather calls for cozy clothes, but my beat-up sweats are far from cute these days.
    — Clara McMahon, People.com, 6 Oct. 2024
  • The galaxy itself is warped like the brim of a beat-up cowboy hat.
    — Quanta Magazine, 28 Sep. 2023
  • But the beat-up car didn’t affect how Sly felt about its owner.
    — Dana Rose Falcone, Peoplemag, 31 May 2023
  • The backpacks and sneakers could be a little more beat-up when the school bell rings this fall.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 12 July 2023
  • An internal scar that reminds me to be gentle with my beat-up heart.
    — Heidi Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Trading in your beat-up mattress for something new is one of the best ways to start sleeping through the night.
    — Christopher Murray, Fox News, 21 Jan. 2025
  • And the other Kennedys usually drove beat-up, old cars around the Cape.
    — Kate Storey, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2026
  • White bandana, beat-up sneakers, black windbreaker pants.
    — Meghan O'Brien, NBC news, 7 June 2026
  • And to show for it, Chastain had a beat-up car and some explaining to do to one of his fiercest rivals.
    — Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 6 Oct. 2025
  • The shoe cleaner can be used on a wide range of shoes such as sneakers and boots, and is great for cleaning dirty and beat-up outsoles.
    — Alyssa Rotunno, Travel + Leisure, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Chinos One of the maxims in menswear is that chinos are really just beat-up khakis.
    — Christian Gollayan, Men's Health, 6 Mar. 2023
  • The Chargers took over, needing to pass the ball behind a beat-up offensive line.
    — Daniel Popper, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Tribal members drove around in a beat-up Buick flinging matches out the window.
    — Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2026
  • This isn’t some janky jumble that Rose has hauled cross-country in her beat-up car, then spit shined for performance.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 20 Dec. 2024
  • Even its most powerful denizens drove beat-up Volvos; its dandies shopped at Brooks Brothers.
    — Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 11 Jan. 2026
  • There were swishy trousers and plush overcoats, neckties mixed up with cowboy hats, a bit of fringe and the occasional beat-up leather.
    — Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2024
  • Malott’s grandfather had always kept a beat-up old oak bi-folding table behind the counter.
    — Maggie Menderski, Louisville Courier Journal, 4 Mar. 2026
  • People are buying chore coats that actually look like they’ve been used for the namesake—the more beat-up the better.
    — Ashley Poskin, Martha Stewart, 6 Sep. 2026
  • Those beat-up sneakers hidden in the depths of your dad’s closet may be the unexpected footwear your wardrobe needs this summer.
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 June 2023
  • The conversation is cut short as the group of men hop into the beat-up pickup truck that brought them here to finish out the workday.
    — Jake Frederico, The Arizona Republic, 4 Sep. 2023
  • Trying to make a couple bucks off his beat-up two-wheeler, Solomon was surprisingly turned away from the shop.
    — Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 20 July 2024
  • The sill holds a beat-up VHS copy of Boogie Nights alongside a jar of tools.
    — Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 19 Oct. 2026
  • The 275-square-foot studio had beat-up wooden floors and small windows, and what passed for a fireplace was a hole in the wall.
    — Michael Mundy, Curbed, 25 Mar. 2025
  • It’ll be filled with plenty of work to do and useful downtime for the beat-up SEC contender.
    — Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 18 Oct. 2026
  • Easy to dress up with skirts and trousers, or down with a beat-up pair of jeans, this versatile essential has a place in everyone’s closet.
    — Christina Holevas, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2024
  • Ayers would head straight to the beat-up old couch, her friend would head to the stage to perform her poetry, and Ayers would feel recharged.
    — Lucia Cheng, Des Moines Register, 10 Feb. 2026
  • If your boss has been lugging around the same beat-up backpack or book bag for years, upgrade him or her to this luxe leather bag from Dr Martens.
    — Tim Chan, Variety, 10 Dec. 2024
  • His first car was an old, beat-up 1956 Ford Victoria and the color of the car was pink.
    — Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 15 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'beat-up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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