How to use defeat in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun
Defeat means to overcome in battle or contest. Example: “Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.”
Examples of defeat by meaning
verbTo overcome in battle or contest.
- Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
- The Japanese defeated the Ming general Tsu Chʻeng-hsün 祖承訓 at Pʻing jang 平壤 in 1592, the first year of Bunroku 文祿 of Japan, and the fighting continued for some years; but at Hideyoshi's death the Japanese troops left Korea.1917, Samuel Couling, “Japanese Relations with China”, in The Encyclopaedia Sinica, Literature House, Ltd., published 1964, →OCLC, page...
- Upon introspection, I feel I am firmer than ever in confidence that the Communists will be defeated.1980 August 1 [1980 May 1], Ching-kuo Chiang, “President Chiang Ching-kuo continues his period of mourning and finds that visits to...
nounThe 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.
- Two defeats in five games coming into this contest, and a draw with Everton, ultimately cost Sir Alex Ferguson's side in what became the most extraordinary finale to the league championship since Arsenal beat Liverpool at Anfield in 1989.2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport
nounThe act or instance of defeating, of overcoming, vanquishing.
- The inscription records her defeat of the country's enemies in a costly war.
nounFrustration (by prevention of success), stymieing; (law) nullification.
- She could see no justice in being forced into a position that promised to end in further humiliation and defeat of her hopes.2008, Gene Porter, A Daughter of the Land, volume 1, →ISBN, page 17
More sentences with defeat
- It'll be a long journey home for the travelling supporters after that 5-0 defeat.From the entry long
- When you defeat this boss, there's a chance a power-up will drop.From the entry drop
- He acted in good faith to restore broken diplomatic ties after defeating the incumbent.From the entry faith
- Kendall conceded defeat once she realized she could not win in a battle of wits.From the entry concede
- We need to try to extract the positives from the defeat.From the entry extract
- After being defeated in three previous finals, Roger finally tasted triumph at this year's competition.From the entry triumph
- After four matches and four defeats, United remain pointless at the foot of the table.From the entry pointless
- The Brazilians are eating their hearts out over their defeat by Germany in the World Cup.From the entry eat one's heart out
- The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated.From the entry challenger
- That culture considered it no disgrace to be defeated in honorable combat.From the entry honorable
- The politician's vainglorious boasting was quickly followed by a conga line of embarrassing defeats.From the entry conga line
- Players complained that some of the characters in the game were overpowered and hard to defeat.From the entry overpowered
- She went god mode and effortlessly defeated her opponents, leaving them in awe of her superhuman skills.From the entry god mode
- We will proceed with unfaltering courage, until we reach our goal or are defeated.From the entry unfaltering
- Republicans defeated Democratic efforts to logroll hate crimes legislation into the defense appropriations bill.From the entry logroll
- We must pit our wits against our enemy and find a way to defeat him.From the entry pit one's wits
- Defeating the boss grants 60 experience points.From the entry point
- Today's victory was an offset to yesterday's defeat.From the entry offset
- He bore the look of a defeated man.From the entry bear
- I've been bitter ever since that defeat.From the entry bitter
- After a brief systemic phase defeated by the immune system, the infection localized to certain areas where it went dormant.From the entry localize
- The defending champion is expected to defeat his challenger.From the entry champion
- Nothing could assuage the bitterness of their defeat.From the entry bitterness
- I leveled up after defeating the dragon.From the entry level up
- Admiral Middlebrooks laid down his flag as a result of the humiliating defeat at the hands of France.From the entry lay down one's flag
- El Tri have just defeated Japan in a 3–1 victory.From the entry El Tri
- In fact a defeat on the battlefield, Tet was a virtual victory for the North, owing to its effect on public opinion.From the entry virtual
- I levelled after defeating the dragon.From the entry level
- The army suffered a staggering defeat.From the entry staggering
- There was evil laughter coming from the villain's lair as he was contemplating how he was going to defeat his heroic foe.From the entry evil laughter
- The children resoundingly defeated the bully.From the entry resoundingly
- Darius defeated the rebels in detail.From the entry in detail
- I defeated the boss, but got hit at the exact same time; now I'm stuck in a softlock and can't exit the level.From the entry softlock
Meaning of defeat
- verb To overcome in battle or contest.
- verb To reduce, to nothing, the strength of.
- verb To nullify.
Questions about defeat in a sentence
- How do you use defeat in a sentence?
- Defeat is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.”
- What is a short sentence with defeat?
- “Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.”
- What does defeat mean?
- Defeat means to overcome in battle or contest.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: defeat (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use defeat in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/defeat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.