Talk:Beating up

Whether or not to re-make this page?

See Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2009 April 4.

Currently this page redirects to Assault, but not all assaults involve beating-up, and beating-up is all too common as an unofficial means of enforcement etc, in reality and in fiction, and in my opinion there is more to it than merely saying what the word means. This page was AfD-deleted in October 2008, but a text search in this Wikipedia (using the "search" box in the left margin) showed these results (with the search term in "quotes" every time to try to enforce consecutiveness):

"beaten up" 920
"beating up" 563
"beat up" 1370
"beat him up" 383

and a quick search showed me that most of these uses seem to be the meaning described here, and that seems to recommend some sort of page saying what it is.

I am trying to avoid this page getting dictdeffy or a ragbag as was complained about before in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Beating up Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Beating up (2nd nomination). The "other meanings" are now in Wiktionary.

New page?

For other meanings see wikt:beat up.

Beating up is systematic punching, or hitting with a blunt instrument, many times, with the design or effect of causing much pain, at the time, and also afterwards by leaving widespread heavy bruising, and sometimes more serious damage, sometimes permanent; and psychological damage. Frequently, to abet this beating, one or more accomplices restrain the victim, often two accomplices, by an arm each.

In the USA it is often called "beating up on".

The "up" started as having meaning "completely" or similarly, as in "writing up" or "cleaning up".

In law "beating up" is a type of battery (crime); but "battery" includes any offensive physical contact however minimal, but a "beating up" constitutes a more damaging and thorough physical attack.

A severe beating-up is sometimes called "beating to (a) pulp", or less often "pulping".

Slang or euphemistic expressions for beating-up include "doing over", "roughing up", "working over", and "processing".

Beating-up is often used:

To enforce orders.
As punishment.
To discourage the loser in a dispute from later attempting a fightback.
To prevent the victim from pursuing or raising an alarm.
To prevent the victim from resisting for a while afterwards during handling or transport.
Often, merely because the perpetrators, feeling angry against the victim, lose their mental restraints against violence, for example when security men beat up the tenth uncooperative drunk that they have to eject in the same evening.

Variations include:

Another man stands behind the victim and keeps the victim's garments out of the way.
Avoiding causing visible damage (e.g. to the face) where clothes do not hide it.

External links

Descriptions: real (warning: violence)

[[Category:Violence]] [[sv:Stryk]]

Discussion

Reads pretty much as a dictdef to me and is unsourced. --82.7.40.7 (talk) 16:08, 4 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
We need some sort of description here. About 3000 pages mention beating-up without saying what it is. Many Wikipedia readers are not native English speakers and will not know as much English as you and me. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 16:43, 4 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If you want a description/definition that's what a dictionary is for, not an encyclopedia. If I read the Portugese wikipedia and don't understand a phrase I don't expect it to be included within the encyclopedia, unless there is an encyclopedic article to be written about it. Interestingly this starts about talking about slang or euphamistic versions of it, yet my understanding would be that it is in itself a slang or euphamistic term for a physical attack or physical retribution (of course I have no source for that, just my personal understanding of the term). --82.7.40.7 (talk) 16:59, 4 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]