snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory verb: to fail to achieve an expected success, especially through counterproductive intervention.
Verb
snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory (third-person singular simple present snatches defeat out of the jaws of victory, present participle snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, simple past and past participle snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory)
- To fail to achieve an expected success, especially through counterproductive intervention.
- "The Germans," he remarked, "have the uncanny ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory."1942, United States. Army. Chemical Warfare Service, News Letter, page 3
- The quip attributed to prominent New Dealer Paul Porter that "Dewey snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory" sums up that feeling.1959, Jules Abels, Out of the Jaws of Victory, New York, Holt
Examples of snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory in a sentence
- Whitman nearly managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory by allowing Florio to define her as out of touch and unfit for the governorship.2009 December 11, Thomas M. Carsey, Campaign Dynamics: The Race for Governor, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 101:
- It is tempting to suggest that the Luftwaffe's poor intelligence caused it to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.2013 September 13, Michael Handel, Intelligence and Military Operations, Routledge, →ISBN, page 84:
- Coaches and managers, every year, assault these two codes of conduct with impunity and by doing so manage to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.2022 May 13, Nick Lee Thamer, Average Doesn't Take Much Effort, Dare to Be Great, Christian Faith Publishing, Inc., →ISBN:
Forms of snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
| third-person singular present | snatches defeat out of the jaws of victory |
|---|---|
| present participle | snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory |
| past participle | snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory |
| past | snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory |
Origin of snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
Ironic reversal of a similar idiom, to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, with the opposite meaning.
Questions about snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
- What does snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory mean?
- Snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory means to fail to achieve an expected success, especially through counterproductive intervention.
- How do you use snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory in a sentence?
- Whitman nearly managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory by allowing Florio to define her as out of touch and unfit for the governorship.
- What part of speech is snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory?
- Snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory is a verb.
- What is the past tense of snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory?
- The past tense of snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory is snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Words near snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snatch defeat out of 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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Cite this entry: “snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snatch_defeat_out_of_the_jaws_of_victory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.