Word.ws English Dictionary

snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

snatch victory from the jaws of defeat verb: to suddenly win a contest when it appears that loss is a foregone conclusion, to succeed in an endeavor through reversal of fortune, skill, effort, or good judgment.

Verb

snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (third-person singular simple present snatches victory from the jaws of defeat, present participle snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, simple past and past participle snatched victory from the jaws of defeat)

  1. (idiomatic) To suddenly win a contest when it appears that loss is a foregone conclusion, to succeed in an endeavor through reversal of fortune, skill, effort, or good judgment.
    • 2010, Liam Maloney, "Sligo snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat," Sligo Weekender (Sligo, Ireland). 16 February.

snatch victory from the jaws of defeat meaning in Vietnamese

snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Vietnamese

suddenly win a contest when it appears that loss is a foregone conclusion, to succeed in an endeavor through reversal of fortune, skill, effort, or good judgment
dành lấy thắng lợi từ thế thất bại

Forms of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

third-person singular presentsnatches victory from the jaws of defeat
present participlesnatching victory from the jaws of defeat
past participlesnatched victory from the jaws of defeat
pastsnatched victory from the jaws of defeat

Origin of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

The first recorded use of the phrase discovered to date is an article criticizing Representative James Seddon of Virginia for claiming that a regiment in the Mexican–American War had "snatched victory from the jaws of defeat."

Questions about snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

What does snatch victory from the jaws of defeat mean?
Snatch victory from the jaws of defeat means to suddenly win a contest when it appears that loss is a foregone conclusion, to succeed in an endeavor through reversal of fortune, skill, effort, or good judgment.
What is snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Vietnamese?
Snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Vietnamese is dành lấy thắng lợi từ thế thất bại. See Snatch victory from the jaws of defeat meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?
Snatch victory from the jaws of defeat is a verb.
What is the past tense of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?
The past tense of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat is snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Words near snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the dictionary

  1. snatch loading
  2. snatch someone's edges
  3. snatch squad
  4. snatch squads
  5. snatch the pebble
  6. snatch victory from the jaws of defeat
  7. snatch'd
  8. snatchable
  9. snatchback
  10. snatchbacks
  11. snatched

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (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 victory from the jaws of defeat.ogg.

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