/ dɪˈfiːt; NAmE / verb , noun
■ verb [ vn ]
1.
to win against sb in a war, competition, sports game, etc.
SYN beat :
He defeated the champion in three sets.
a defeated army
2.
( formal ) if sth defeats you, you cannot understand it :
The instruction manual completely defeated me.
3.
to stop sth from being successful :
The motion was defeated by 19 votes.
Staying late at the office to discuss shorter working hours rather defeats the object of the exercise !
■ noun
1.
[ U , C ] failure to win or to be successful :
The party faces defeat in the election.
a narrow / heavy defeat
The world champion has only had two defeats in 20 fights.
They finally had to admit defeat (= stop trying to be successful) .
2.
[ C , usually sing. ] the act of winning a victory over sb/sth :
the defeat of fascism
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WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English (in the sense undo, destroy, annul ): from Old French desfait undone, past participle of desfaire , from medieval Latin disfacere undo.