The Collaborative International Dictionary
Defeat \De*feat"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Defeated; p. pr. & vb. n. Defeating.] [From F. d['e]fait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe d['e]faire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
-
To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [Obs.]
His unkindness may defeat my life.
--Shak. -
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.
--Tillotson.The escheators . . . defeated the right heir of his succession.
--Hallam.In one instance he defeated his own purpose.
--A. W. Ward. 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.
Sharp reasons to defeat the law.
--Shak.Syn: To baffle; disappoint; frustrate.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of defeat English)
Usage examples of "defeating".
After defeating a Roman army he assumed all the pomp of royalty, and took the surname of Tryphon, which had been borne by a usurper to the Syrian throne.
After defeating several generals whom Sulla had sent against him, he had to encounter, in B.
For though it had been defeated on the battlefield the Army still had hopes of maintaining itself at home and of defeating the revolution.
It restored Alsace-Lorraine to France, a parcel of territory to Belgium, a similar parcel in Schleswig to Denmark - after a plebiscite - which Bismarck had taken from the Danes in the previous century after defeating them in war.
If we succeed in occupying and securing Holland and Belgium, as well as defeating France, the basis for a successful war against England has been created.
Russia, but his views were not accepted by the government in Tokyo, whose attitude seemed to be that if the Germans were rapidly defeating the Russians, as they claimed, they needed no help from the Japanese.
There seemed to be a strong feeling in both Houses as well as in the Army and Navy that the country ought to concentrate its efforts on defeating Japan and not take on the additional burden of fighting Germany at the same time.
American High Command on preparations and prospects for defeating Germany and her allies.
Schuirmann, was moved to write that the many such statements made lately by prominent people showed a widespread belief in the potentiality of China as an active military factor in defeating Japan.
Apart from defeating Japan, he might have been hard put to define what the joint purposes were.
After badly defeating the incoming 29th Division they took Wanting on May 8 and reached the deep gorge of the Salween just after the retreating Chinese destroyed the bridge.
The prospect of her visit had alarmed the Combined Chiefs who feared she would bewitch the President into altering the strategy of defeating Germany first.
Chinese manpower as the ultimate land force in defeating the Japanese on the continent of Asia.
Its only possible hope of defeating the Republican party lay in the Republican revolt, and the revolt could be fomented and prolonged only by imparting to it prestige and power.
The acute penetration of his mind was agreeably occupied in detecting and defeating the chicanery of the advocates, who labored to disguise the truths of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws.