揍(zòu) - to beat up, to hit, to thump in Mandarin

揍 is colloquial and always means striking a person. It sits a notch rougher than 打, which is the neutral all-purpose verb and can take almost any object: 打电话, 打球, 打人. You cannot swap 揍 into any of those except the last.

It very often takes 一顿 (yī dùn) as its measure phrase: 揍他一顿 is to give him a proper hiding, one continuous beating rather than a single blow. 被揍了一顿 is the passive, which is how the word most commonly appears in a story.

The register is the trap. 揍 belongs to spoken, informal, often family or playground language, and it can be jokey between friends. In a news report or anything written you would see 殴打 (ōudǎ) or 攻击 (gōngjī) instead.