Is there a kind of heating system called "a beater"?

Question

I found the following phrase in a book.

"the monthly payment on their new furnace since the beater that came with their house died last month"

And now I'm wondering if there is any kind of heating system (or a part of a heating system) which is called "the beater."

Otherwise, is it just a typo? (maybe for "the heater?")

If it's a recent book, they may be extending M-W's sense 3 from just cars to any old, barely-functional piece of equipment.... — Hellion, May 10 '18 at 13:57
@Hellion's right. This use certainly gets extended. It's common for bikes (even in the UK where we don't really use it for cars) etc. On the other hand we can't out rule out OCR error without more info — Chris H, May 10 '18 at 14:48

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Beater is slang deriving from beat-up, referring to something worn-out, dilapidated, weathered, or otherwise beaten up from age and use. I like the GNU CID definition, which Wordnik gives as

adj. worn by use into a deplorable condition.

The heater, in other words, was in such bad condition as to merit replacement, not repair or upgrade.

In my experience, beater usually refers to something mechanical: a vehicle, a tool, an appliance. By extension, however, since this is an informal term to begin with, it could be applied to most anything. Either a bent up egg beater or a tattered sleeveless undershirt might be a beater [of a] beater.

The police will tell you it’s not unusual for people to open their garage, find their expensive bike gone, and in its place find an old beater bike — the bike on which the thief arrived. —_{^{Tony Brown, "[Lessons from scuttling a Minneapolis bike theft scheme4", Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 12, 2018}}

[P]eople sometimes buy an old beater truck… Say hello to the concept of a beater phone.—_{^{Catharine Hamm, "The best ways to keep in touch with home while you're abroad", The Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2017}}

And it wasn't his fault UC didn't rate, in the eyes of the Atlantic Coast Conference, or that the Bearcats play in a charming old beater of a stadium we don't fill. —_{^{Paul Daughtery, "Butch Jones commitment to Cincy was pretense", USA Today December 7, 2012}}

Don't you think it would be weird to have a 'beater heater'? — Mitch, May 10 '18 at 17:50
@Mitch If I'm okay with a beater beater, I'm already operating from a pretty base base,wearing my dud duds in my flat flat with the crap crapper. — choster, May 10 '18 at 18:44

Is there a kind of heating system called "a beater"?

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