defeat
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (2)defeats, defeated, defeating
- win a victory over“You must overcome all difficulties”“defeat your enemies”“He overcame his shyness”“He overcame his infirmity”“Her anger got the better of her and she blew up”Synonyms: get the better ofovercomeMore general winMore specific survive, surpass, wallop, demolish, conquer, rout, down, upset, lurch, nose +1 more
- thwart the passage of“kill a motion”“he shot down the student's proposal”Synonyms: killshoot downvote downvote outMore general veto, blackball
Noun (2)defeats
- an unsuccessful ending to a struggle or contest“it was a narrow defeat”“the army's only defeat”“they suffered a convincing licking”Synonyms: lickingOpposite triumphType of ending, failureKinds thrashing, lurch, rout, shutout, whitewash, waterloo, heartbreaker
- the feeling that accompanies an experience of being thwarted in attaining your goalsSynonyms: frustrationType of disappointment, letdown
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Noun the act of being defeated, of losing
- Spanish
- derrota
- French
- défaite
- German
- Niederlage
- Italian
- sconfitta
- Portuguese
- derrota
- Turkish
- mağlubiyet
- Russian
- пораже́ние poražénije
- Arabic
- هَزِيمَة hazīma
- Chinese
- 失败 shībài
- Japanese
- 敗北 haiboku
21 more languages
- Dutch
- nederlaag
- Polish
- porażka
- Swedish
- nederlag
- Greek
- ήττα ítta
- Korean
- 패배 paebae
- Indonesian
- kekalahan
- Hungarian
- vereség
- Portuguese (PT)
- derrota
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 敗仗 bàizhàng
- Catalan
- derrota
- Czech
- porážka
- Danish
- nederlag
- Esperanto
- malvenko
- Estonian
- lüüasaamine
- Finnish
- tappio
- Hebrew
- תְּבוּסָה t'vusá
- Latvian
- sakāve
- Malagasy
- faharesena
- Norwegian
- nederlag
- Romanian
- înfrângere
- Serbo-Croatian
- poraz
Verb to overcome in battle or contest
- Spanish
- vencer
- French
- vaincre
- German
- besiegen
- Italian
- vincere
- Portuguese
- vencer
- Turkish
- yenmek
- Russian
- победи́ть pobedítʹ
- Arabic
- هَزَمَ hazama
- Chinese
- 打败 dǎbài
- Japanese
- 負かす makasu
19 more languages
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.
1. To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. obsolete
His unkindness may defeat my life.— William Shakespeare
2. To render null and void, as a title; to frustrate, as hope; to deprive, as of an estate.
He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes.— John Tilllotson
The escheators... defeated the right heir of his succession.— Henry Hallam
In one instance he defeated his own purpose.— Adolphus William Ward
3. To overcome or vanquish, as an army; to check, disperse, or ruin by victory; to overthrow.
4. To resist with success; as, to defeat an assault.
Sharp reasons to defeat the law.— William Shakespeare
Synonyms: To baffle; disappoint; frustrate.
Origin: Cf. F. défaite, fr. défaire. See Defeat, verb
1. An undoing or annulling; destruction. obsolete
Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made.— William Shakespeare
2. Frustration by rendering null and void, or by prevention of success; as, the defeat of a plan or design.
3. An overthrow, as of an army in battle; loss of a battle; repulse suffered; discomfiture; — opposed to victory.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54