defeat

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an unsuccessful ending to a struggle or contest

   it was a narrow defeat

2. 2
   verb

   To overcome in battle or contest.

   Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

3. 3
   verb

   To reduce, to nothing, the strength of.

   He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes.

4. 4
   verb

   To nullify

   The escheators […] defeated the right heir of his succession.

5. 5
   verb

   To prevent (something) from being achieved.

   The last active L.Y.R. 0-6-0ST (apart from works shunters), No. 51408, has been moved from Bolton to Agecroft for use in New Bailey Yard, Salford, where a sharp 1 in 27 curve is said to have defeated all attempts so far to employ diesel shunters; an ex-L.Y.R. 0-4-0ST also works here.

6. 6
   noun

   The act or instance of being defeated, of being overcome or vanquished; a loss.

   Licking their wounds after a temporary defeat, they planned their next move.

7. 7
   noun

   The act or instance of defeating, of overcoming, vanquishing.

   The inscription records her defeat of the country's enemies in a costly war.

8. 8
   noun

   Frustration (by prevention of success), stymieing; (law) nullification.

   ... is subsequently issued to him, in accordance with his perfect equity thus acquired, by a legal fiction which the law creates for the protection, but not for the defeat, of his title.

Etymology

From Middle English defet, from French deffet, desfait, past participle of the verb desfaire (compare modern French défaire), from des- + faire.