beatnik

noun

beat·​nik ˈbēt-nik How to pronounce beatnik (audio)
: a person who participated in a social movement of the 1950s and early 1960s which stressed artistic self-expression and the rejection of the mores of conventional society
broadly : a usually young and artistic person who rejects the mores of conventional society

Examples of beatnik in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The landlord was a bearded beatnik, a vestige of another era, who’d bought several ramshackle structures for a song in the sixties and liked to curate an assortment of interesting tenants. Sarah Braunstein, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024 Beneath the Spotify present and the punk-rock attitude, there’s the heart of a beatnik to Gasoline Rainbow. Alison Willmore, Vulture, 10 May 2024 John Sinclair, the beatnik poet and Detroit counterculture icon, died Tuesday morning of heart failure at 82. Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 12 Apr. 2024 Novak's Gillian is a chic, Greenwich Village witch in the beatnik era who owns an unusual art gallery and an extremely unusual black cat. Gwen Ihnat, EW.com, 26 Sep. 2023 See all Example Sentences for beatnik 

Word History

Etymology

beat entry 3 + -nik

First Known Use

1958, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of beatnik was in 1958

Dictionary Entries Near beatnik

Cite this Entry

“Beatnik.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beatnik. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on beatnik

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!