Learn English – Meaning of “get somebody back”

The core idiom here is [WINNER] beat [RIVAL], where beat means outdo, surpass. The full idiom is [WINNER] beat [RIVAL] to [GOAL] by [MARGIN], in which the Goal and Margin phrases are optional.

It may be used in a variety of competitive circumstances — for instance, scientific, political or financial as well as athletic.

• The Soviets beat the U.S. to space. —[MARGIN] is not specified.
• Newton apparently developed the calculus first, but Leibnitz beat him to publication by three years. —[WINNER] is ‘Leibnitz’, [RIVAL] is Newton (‘him’), [GOAL] is ‘publication’, and [MARGIN] is ‘three years’.
• Claudius beat him to it. —a gloss on ‘Popped in between th’election and my hopes’. [RIVAL] is Hamlet (‘him’) and [GOAL] is election to the kingship (‘it’); [MARGIN] is not expressed.
• Boeing last beat Airbus in 2007, by 75 jets. —[GOAL], unexpressed, is to score more orders.
• Man o’ War beat Hoodwink by more than 100 lengths. —[GOAL], unexpressed, is the finishing line.
• Auburn beat Alabama by a field goal. —[GOAL], unexpressed, is to score more points before play ends; [MARGIN] is expressed by ‘a field goal’, which scores three points.

Accordingly:

• Beat me to it by about 30 seconds! —[GOAL] is first publication of this answer (‘it’), [RIVAL] is the poster, Alfred Centauri (‘me’), [MARGIN] is ‘about 30 seconds’, and [WINNER] is ellipted: ‘you’, The Photon, to whom the comment is addressed.

Tolerate allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference.

"a regime unwilling to tolerate dissent"

synonyms:allow, permit, condone, accept,swallow, countenance; 

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