snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory verb: to suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment.
Verb
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (third-person singular simple present snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, present participle snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, simple past and past participle snatched defeat from the jaws of victory)
- To suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment.
- 1874, Illinois sports pages, "but when they [the Whitesocks baseball team] snatch defeat from the jaws of victory there can be little sympathy for their deserved misfortune." (Quoteinvestigator)
- 1999, Abraham Lincoln removed Gen. Ambrose Burnside from command after the Battle of Fredricksburg (11-15 December 1862), describing his actions as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory—Janis Herbert, The Civil War for Kids. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, p. 68.
Examples of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a sentence
- 2009, "Teenagers snatch defeat from the jaws of victory," Londonderry Sentinal (Londonderry, Northern Ireland). 22 October 2009.
- Hosogaya, who'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, was relieved of command and forced to retire to the reserves, where he would never again be allowed an active seagoing command.2023 October 4, Drachinifel, 28:18 from the start, in Battle of the Komandorski Islands - Forced to run, yet still they won, archived from...
Forms of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
| third-person singular present | snatches defeat from the jaws of victory |
|---|---|
| present participle | snatching defeat from the jaws of victory |
| past participle | snatched defeat from the jaws of victory |
| past | snatched defeat from the jaws of victory |
Origin of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
An ironic reversal of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Questions about snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
- What does snatch defeat from the jaws of victory mean?
- Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory means to suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment.
- How do you use snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a sentence?
- 2009, "Teenagers snatch defeat from the jaws of victory," Londonderry Sentinal (Londonderry, Northern Ireland). 22 October 2009.
- What part of speech is snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
- Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is a verb.
- What is the past tense of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
- The past tense of snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Words near snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.ogg.
Cite this entry: “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.