defeated

3 definitions • 5 examples

past simple and past participle of

to win against someone in a fight, war, or competition:

Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo.

They defeated the Italian team and reached the final.

to cause someone or something to fail:

be narrowly defeated The proposal to change the rules was narrowly defeated (= by a very small number) by 201 votes to 196.

Our ambitions for this tournament have been defeated by the weather.

I'm afraid anything that involves language learning has always defeated me (= I have been unable to do it).