Word.ws English Dictionary

beating the odds

beating the odds is the present participle and gerund 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 beating the odds

What is beating the odds the present participle and gerund of?
Beating the odds is the present participle and gerund of beat the odds.

Words near beating the odds in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beating 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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