Word.ws English Dictionary

beaten the odds

beaten the odds is the past participle of beat the odds.

Meaning of beat the odds

Verb

beat the odds (third-person singular simple present beats the odds, present participle beating the odds, simple past beat the odds, past participle beaten the odds or (colloquial) beat the odds)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To succeed despite being unlikely to do so.
    • The emotional appeal of the Trickster is that of the perpetual underdog who sometimes beats the odds. He surprises human beings and offers them hope in his illustration of freedom from destiny.1983, Wendy Griswold, “The Devil's Techniques: Cultural Legitimation and Social Change”, in American Sociological Review, volume 48, number 5, page 669b of 668–680

Questions about beaten the odds

What is beaten the odds the past participle of?
Beaten the odds is the past participle of beat the odds.

Words near beaten the odds in the dictionary

  1. beaten the drum for
  2. beaten the dummy
  3. beaten the dust
  4. beaten the hoof
  5. beaten the meat
  6. beaten the odds
  7. beaten the pants off
  8. beaten the poop out of
  9. beaten the shit out of
  10. beaten the stuffing out of
  11. beaten the system

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beaten the odds (page history and authors); beat the odds (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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