as in overcoming
to achieve a victory over
they defeated their archrivals easily and moved into the next round of the play-offs
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Recent Examples of defeating
The Chargers got off to a hot start to the season in year two under Jim Harbaugh by defeating the Chiefs 27-21 in the NFL season opener.
—
Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
Jovic lifted the trophy by defeating Colombia’s Emiliana Arango 6-4, 6-1 in Sunday’s final of the WTA 500 tournament in Zapopan, Mexico.
—Manasi Pathak, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Doubling down on the Abraham Accords is the surest path to defeating Hamas, Ted Deutch, former US congressman and CEO of the American Jewish Committee, writes in The Times of Israel.
—Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Pergola and Rome walk through some of their favorite methods for defeating coffee stains, both at home and at the office.
—Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 14 Sep. 2025
Before the Bournemouth defeat, Tottenham convincingly beat Manchester City 2-0, which meant this was the ninth consecutive instance of Spurs failing to win the next game after defeating City.
—Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2025
But the Pioneers were able to rebound with a rout of their own by defeating La Mirada 54-14 on Thursday night at Western High.
—David Delgado, Oc Register, 11 Sep. 2025
Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz won his second US Open title, defeating Italian rival Jannik Sinner in four thrilling sets.
—Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 8 Sep. 2025
Sinner won this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, defeating Alcaraz in four sets in the latter.
—Kurt Badenhausen, Sportico.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
Jovic lifted the trophy by defeating Colombia’s Emiliana Arango 6-4, 6-1 in Sunday’s final of the WTA 500 tournament in Zapopan, Mexico.
—Manasi Pathak, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Doubling down on the Abraham Accords is the surest path to defeating Hamas, Ted Deutch, former US congressman and CEO of the American Jewish Committee, writes in The Times of Israel.
—Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Pergola and Rome walk through some of their favorite methods for defeating coffee stains, both at home and at the office.
—Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 14 Sep. 2025
Before the Bournemouth defeat, Tottenham convincingly beat Manchester City 2-0, which meant this was the ninth consecutive instance of Spurs failing to win the next game after defeating City.
—Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2025
But the Pioneers were able to rebound with a rout of their own by defeating La Mirada 54-14 on Thursday night at Western High.
—David Delgado, Oc Register, 11 Sep. 2025
Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz won his second US Open title, defeating Italian rival Jannik Sinner in four thrilling sets.
—Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 8 Sep. 2025
Sinner won this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, defeating Alcaraz in four sets in the latter.
—Kurt Badenhausen, Sportico.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defeating
Verb
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The movie adaptation is also rife with metaphors about boys becoming men and overcoming life-or-death circumstances to make it out the other side.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
11 Sep. 2025
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But in reality, deepfakes are getting better and the threat industry has many years of experience in honing lures to trick people, playing on emotions and overcoming natural suspicions and objections.—
Zak Doffman,
Forbes.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Oftentimes, excellence comes down to mastering the mundane rather than making spectacular plays, especially for young players.—
Robert Marvi,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 Sep. 2025
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As the physician and philosopher Jodi Halpern has pointed out, Osler believed that a doctor should aspire to be an island of calm in stormy seas, mastering her own unruly emotions with the force of rationality.—
Rachel Pearson,
Harpers Magazine,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Yes, that’s Lane Kiffin adapting by becoming a basketball goal (while also adapting by beating Arkansas 41-35 with Division II Ferris State transfer Trinidad Chambliss stepping in for Austin Simmons at QB).—
Jason Kirk,
New York Times,
14 Sep. 2025
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Both sides have also carried out arbitrary detentions, with SAF interrogating and beating dozens of Christians in 2024 and 2025.—
Paul Tilsley,
FOXNews.com,
14 Sep. 2025
Verb
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No doubt fans would embrace the arena evolution as simply the next rung on the band’s inevitable, world-conquering trajectory.—
Daniel Kohn,
Rolling Stone,
16 Sep. 2025
-
Dealing with the origins of the armor as well as Arago’s previous attempts at conquering the world.—
Ollie Barder,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Ten category winners will receive $50,000 each, with one school taking home $500,000 to scale what works.—
Jaime Catmull,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
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Shortly after taking the position, McMahon, who comes from many years of experience in the private sector, noted that DOGE was conducting a solid audit of the agency.—
Arthur Jones II,
ABC News,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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López departed after four innings and just 61 pitches in the Twins’ 6-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night at Target Field, getting five more outs after the play before leaving with what the Twins called right forearm tightness as a result of the dive.—
Betsy Helfand,
Twin Cities,
20 Sep. 2025
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The Lions outgained the Packers by 100 yards in a Week 1 loss before getting 511 yards total offense against the Bears.—
Jack Magruder,
Forbes.com,
20 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Lee said the ministry is dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team.—
Kim Tong-Hyung,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Sep. 2025
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The plan is to pass the bill produced by that negotiation first through the House and then send it to the Senate before dispatching it to Trump for his signature.—
Alexander Bolton,
The Hill,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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With conditions restored on the 236-meter flight deck, Barone made multiple warm-up passes to heat the SF90’s V8 engine and then launched from the aft end, stopping safely before ascending the ramp.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
19 Sep. 2025
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In 2020 and 2021, many endorsed the deplatforming of Covid skeptics and election conspiracy theorists, arguing that there was a public interest in stopping misinformation.—
David Weigel,
semafor.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Defeating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defeating. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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