Contextualizebeta

defeat

verb
/dɪˈfiːt/

Etymology

From Middle English defet, from French deffet, desfait, past participle of the verb desfaire (compare modern French défaire), from des- + faire.

  1. derived from defet — “disfigured”
  2. inherited from defeten

Definitions

  1. To overcome in battle or contest.

    • Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
    • The Japanese defeated the Ming general Tsu Chʻeng-hsün 祖承訓 at Pʻing jang 平壤 in 1592, the first year of Bunroku 文祿 of Japan, and the fighting continued for some years; but at Hideyoshi's death the Japanese troops left Korea.

  2. To reduce, to nothing, the strength of.

    • He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes.
    • In one instance he defeated his own purpose.

  3. To nullify

    • The escheators […] defeated the right heir of his succession.
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. To prevent (something) from being achieved.

    2. The act or instance of being defeated, of being overcome or vanquished

      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.
      • 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.

    3. The act or instance of defeating, of overcoming, vanquishing.

      • The inscription records her defeat of the country's enemies in a costly war.

    4. Frustration (by prevention of success), stymieing

      Frustration (by prevention of success), stymieing; (law) nullification.

      • ... 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.
      • She could see no justice in being forced into a position that promised to end in further humiliation and defeat of her hopes.

    5. Destruction, ruin.

      • and made defeat of her virginity

The neighborhood

Derived

defeatable, defeatingly, defeat the purpose, redefeat, self-defeating, undefeatability, undefeatable, admit defeat, defeatican, defeatless, defeatocrat, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, social defeat

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at defeat. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01defeat02battle03combat04victory05competition06competing07compete08win

A definitional loop anchored at defeat. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at defeat

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA