Meaning

4 senses
  1. (transitive)To overcome in battle or contest.

    Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

    schlagen, besiegen, niederringen

    побежда́тьpobeždátʹ, победи́тьpobedítʹ, разбива́тьrazbivátʹ

    поража́тиporažáty, порази́тиporazýty, перемага́тиperemaháty

  2. (transitive)To reduce, to nothing, the strength of.

    zunichtemachen

  3. (transitive)To nullify

  4. To prevent (something) from being achieved.

More definitions
  • win a victory over
  • thwart the passage of

Examples

493 sentences
  1. Tom won't be able to defeat me.

    Том не зможе мене подолати. — deniko

  2. He admitted his defeat.

    Він визнав поразку. — deniko

    ruОн признал своё поражение. — las

    deEr gab seine Niederlage zu. — riotlake

  3. We admitted our defeat.

    Ми визнали поразку. — deniko

    ruМы признали поражение. — Wezel

  4. The people united will never be defeated.

    Об’єднаний народ ніколи не буде переможений. — Rovo

    ruКогда народ един - он непобедим. — soweli_Elepanto

  5. We defeated the enemy.

    Ми перемогли ворога. — deniko

    ruМы победили врага. — marafon

    deWir bezwangen den Feind. — Hans_Adler

Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
to overcome in battle or contest:
Русский
By meaning 1
to overcome in battle or contest:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to overcome in battle or contest:
to reduce, to nothing, the strength of:

Origin

From Middle English defeten, from Middle English defet (“disfigured”, past participle) and

From Middle English defeten, from Middle English defet (“disfigured”, past participle) and defet (“defect”, noun), see Etymology 2 below.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

defeats, defeating, defeated, defeated
Base formdefeat · to defeat
3rd person singulardefeats
Present participledefeating
Past simpledefeated
Past participledefeated

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theydefeat
he, she, itdefeats

Past simpleLesson

all personsdefeated

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave defeated
he, she, ithas defeated

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill defeat

Synonyms

35 synonyms

Antonyms

11 antonyms

Word family

12 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
defeat — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto