defeat
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old French desfait, from the verb desfaire (compare modern French défaire), from des- + faire, or possibly from Vulgar Latin disfaciō, disfacere (“unmake”), from Latin dis- + faciō.
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
defeat (third-person singular simple present defeats, present participle defeating, simple past and past participle defeated)
- (transitive) To overcome in battle or contest.
- Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
- (transitive) To reduce, to nothing, the strength of.
- Tillotson
- He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes.
- A. W. Ward
- In one instance he defeated his own purpose.
- Tillotson
- (transitive) To nullify
- Hallam
- The escheators […] defeated the right heir of his succession.
- Hallam
Derived termsEdit
SynonymsEdit
HyponymsEdit
- conquer (defeat and annex); rout, crush, cream (decisive); shutout, zilch (sports, to defeat without permitting any opposing score)
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to overcome in battle or contest
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to reduce, to nothing, the strength of
NounEdit
defeat (countable and uncountable, plural defeats)
- The act or instance of defeating, of overcoming, vanquishing.
- The inscription records her defeat of the country's enemies in a costly war.
- The act or instance of being defeated, of being overcome or vanquished; a loss.
- Licking their wounds after a temporary defeat, they planned their next move.
- 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- Two defeats in five games coming into this contest, and a draw with Everton, ultimately cost Sir Alex Ferguson's side in what became the most extraordinary finale to the league championship since Arsenal beat Liverpool at Anfield in 1989.
- Frustration (by prevention of success), stymieing; (law) nullification.
- 1909, The Southern Reporter, page 250:
- ... is subsequently issued to him, in accordance with his perfect equity thus acquired, by a legal fiction which the law creates for the protection, but not for the defeat, of his title.
- 2008, Gene Porter, A Daughter of the Land, volume 1 (→ISBN), page 17:
- She could see no justice in being forced into a position that promised to end in further humiliation and defeat of her hopes.
- 1909, The Southern Reporter, page 250:
- (obsolete) Destruction, ruin.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 4, scene 1:
- and made defeat of her virginity
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 4, scene 1:
AntonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
the act of defeating, of overcoming or winning against
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the act of being defeated, of losing
to be checked and sorted: the act of defeating or being defeated
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