- [uncountable, countable] failure to win or to be successful
- The party faces defeat in the election.
- They suffered a narrow defeat in the final.
- a heavy/humiliating/crushing defeat
- The world champion has only had two defeats in 20 fights.
- They finally had to admit defeat (= stop trying to be successful).
- to concede/accept defeat
- defeat by somebody their defeat by the Brazilians
- defeat against somebody last week's defeat against Manchester United
- a punishing defeat at the hands of Iceland in the World Cup
- in defeat He was gracious in defeat, acknowledging his opponent's greater skill.
- a series of small victories and defeats
Extra ExamplesTopics Difficulty and failureb2, War and conflictb2- A skilful politician can always reverse any defeats.
- The prime minister conceded defeat and resigned.
- The battle ended in a humiliating defeat.
- The team suffered defeat at the hands of their oldest rivals.
- Their party suffered a heavy defeat in the election.
- The team went down to their fifth consecutive defeat.
- They lost 4–3 in their second narrow defeat of the week.
- They turned a military defeat into a media victory.
- We just need to avoid defeat in our last two games.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- complete
- comprehensive
- decisive
- …
- accept
- admit
- concede
- …
- defeat against
- defeat by
- defeat at the hands of somebody
- turn defeat into a victory
- [countable, usually singular] the act of winning a victory over somebody/something
- The army inflicted a heavy defeat on rebel forces.
- the defeat of fascism
Extra ExamplesTopics Sports: other sportsb2- They played a key role in Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
- He almost pulled off a shock defeat of the reigning champion.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- complete
- comprehensive
- decisive
- …
- accept
- admit
- concede
- …
- defeat against
- defeat by
- defeat at the hands of somebody
- turn defeat into a victory
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘undo, destroy, annul’): from Old French desfait ‘undone’, past participle of desfaire, from medieval Latin disfacere ‘undo’.
Idioms
See defeat in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee defeat in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishsnatch victory from the jaws of defeat
- to win something even though it seemed up until the last moment that you would lose The idiom is often reversed for humorous effect to show that a person or team were expected to win, but then lost at the last moment, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Check pronunciation:
defeat