v. 1 overcome, conquer, vanquish, be victorious over, get the better of, beat, subdue, overwhelm, overpower, prevail over, triumph over, bring down, worst, thrash, rout, repulse, overthrow, trounce, whip, crush, destroy, do in, best The champion defeated the contender in a ten-round match 2 thwart, frustrate, disappoint, check, balk, stop, terminate, end, finish, foil He never let his handicap defeat his hopes of winning
n. 3 conquest, overthrow, beating, repulse, trouncing, rout, vanquishment The defeat of our team must be charged to lack of training 4 frustration, undoing, failure, miscarriage, set-back; Waterloo The stock market crash spelled the defeat of the company's plan for a share issue