defeat

Speech parts

1. defeat - Noun

2. defeat - Verb

Meaning

To undo; to disfigure; to destroy.

To render null and void, as a title; to frustrate, as hope; to deprive, as of an estate.

To overcome or vanquish, as an army; to check, disperse, or ruin by victory; to overthrow.

To resist with success; as, to defeat an assault.

An undoing or annulling; destruction.

Frustration by rendering null and void, or by prevention of success; as, the defeat of a plan or design.

An overthrow, as of an army in battle; loss of a battle; repulse suffered; discomfiture; -- opposed to victory.

Source: Webster's dictionary

Synonyms

overcome beat vanquish best loss break kill destroy worst overthrow conquer ruin crush frustration downfall
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Antonyms

victory take a beating victor assembly support effect
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Hypernyms

negative failure ending conclusion finish veto

Hyponyms

down skunk whitewash lurch survive destroy

Phrases with the word

admit a defeat admiting defeat conceding defeat concede defeat admit defeat defeat narrowly

Derivatives

defeated defeating

Examples

Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. John F. Kennedy

If you live long enough, you'll see every victory turn into a defeat. Simone de Beauvoir

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

The strong will defeat one, the knowledgeable a thousand. Bashkir proverb

Victory makes you into an emperor, defeat into a rebel. Vietnamese Proverb

He who does not admit defeat is not a sportsman. Swahili Proverb

Close letter words and terms

defeasible fee defeasibleness defeasibly defeat heavily defeat narrowly defeat of self