▪ I. defeat, n.
(dɪˈfiːt)
[Appears at end of 16th c.: f. defeat v., prob. after F. défaite n. (1475 in Hatzf.): the latter was the ordinary fem. n. from défait, -e, pa. pple. of défaire vb., = It. disfatta ‘an vndoing, an vnmaking’ (Florio), a defeat, a rout; Romanic type *disfacta: see defeat v.]
† 1. Undoing; ruin; act of destruction. to make defeat upon (of): to bring about the ruin or destruction of. Obs.
| 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iv. i. 48 If you..Haue vanquisht the resistance of her youth, And made defeat of her virginitie. 1602 ― Ham. ii. ii. 598 A king, Vpon whose property, and most deere life, A damn'd defeate was made. 1621 Beaum. & Fl. Thierry & Theo. v. ii, After the damned defeat on you. a 1634 Chapman Rev. Honour, That he might meantime make a sure defeat On our good aged father's life. 1636 Davenant Wits v. v, I cannot for my heart proceed to more Defeat upon thy liberty. |
2. The action of bringing to nought (schemes, plans, hopes, expectations); frustration. (Now usually fig. of 3.)
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 213 So may a thousand actions once a foote..be all well borne Without defeat. 1645 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 191 After I had sufficiently complained of my defeat of correspondence at Rome. 1667 Ld. G. Digby Elvira i. ii, Th' ingenious defeats..You are prepar'd to give to her suspicions. 1675 Art Contentm. ix. §3. 224 With him..whose perpetual toil makes him insensible what the defeat of sport signifies. 1738 Warburton Div. Legat. ii. Notes (R.), The defeat of Julian's impious purpose to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. 1859 Tennyson Guinevere 621, I must not dwell on that defeat of fame. |
3. The act of overthrowing in a contest, the fact of being so overthrown or overcome; overthrow.
With objective genitive, or its equivalent, as ‘after their defeat by the Romans’, ‘the defeat of Bonaparte at Waterloo’; phrases, to inflict a defeat upon, † give a defeat to, to defeat; to suffer, sustain, † receive a defeat, to be defeated.
a. in a military contest or fight. (The usual term from c 1650.)
| 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 298 They had newes in Fraunce of the defeat of the armie. 1657 North's Plutarch, Addit. Lives 57 To revenge the Defeat which they received at Derbent. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 213 Prince Rupert..notwithstanding his late defeat at Marston Moore. Ibid. 298 They gave a totall defeat to the Turkish Fleet. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 135 The dire event, That with sad overthrow and foul defeat Hath lost us Heav'n. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 74 ¶12 He received the News of the Defeat of his Troops. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 103 He at last suffered a total defeat, and lost all his acquisitions. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §8. 430 The defeat of the Armada. |
b. in other contests or struggles, e.g. in parliament, the defeat of a ministry, of the supporters of a measure, of a measure itself.
| 1697 Jer. Collier Ess. Mor. Subj., Confidence (1698) 103 A Man of Confidence..is ready to rally after a Defeat; and grows more troublesome upon Denial. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 26 In that House of Commons..the Court had sustained a defeat on a vital question. 1884 Gladstone in Standard 29 Feb. 2/7 The vote upon redistribution of power brought about the defeat of the first Reform Bill. |
4. Law. The action of rendering null and void.
▪ II. defeat, v.
(dɪˈfiːt)
Forms: 4–5 deffete, 4–7 defete, 5 deffayt, dyffeat, 5–7 defait, 6 defayte, -fette, -feict, -faict, disfeat, 6–7 defeate, 7 defeit, 6– defeat.
[f. OF. defeit, -fait, orig. desfait, pa. pple. of desfaire = It. disfare, late L. diffacĕre, disfacĕre, to undo, unmake, mar, destroy (in Salic Law and Capitula Car. Magn.), f. L. dis- (see de- I. 6) + facĕre to do, make. Apparently the OF. pa. pple. defait, defeit was first taken into Eng. as a pa. pple. (see defeit, defet); this was soon extended to defeted, and defete taken as the stem of an Eng. verb: cf. the dates of these.
(The pa. pple., and even the pa. tense, were sometimes defeat in 16–17th c.)]
† 1. trans. To unmake, undo, do away with; to ruin, destroy. Obs.
| 1435 Rolls Parl. 490 Ye saide pouere Toune of Caleys, yat by ye continuance of ye saide Staple hath hiderto been gretly maintened..[is] like to bee defaited and lost. 1481 Caxton Myrr. i. i. 7 God may make alle thyng & alle deffete or vnmake. 1481 ― Godfrey 21 Whan Titus..deffeted and destroyed al the cyte. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxviii. xii, Her lusty rethoryke My courage reformed..My sorowe defeted, and my mynde dyde modefy. 1548 Hall Chron. 184 To subverte and defaict all conclusions and agrementes, enacted and assented to, in the last Parliament. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. ii. 160 Vnkindnesse may do much; And his vnkindnesse may defeat my life. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xxii. §5 (1873) 207 Great and sudden fortune for the most part defeateth men. 1611 Cotgr., Desfaire, to vndoe;..defeat, discomfit, ouercome; ruine, destroy, ouerthrow. 1632 Lithgow Trav. viii. 343 Thy wals defeat, were rear'd with fatall bones. |
† 2. To destroy the vigour or vitality of; to cause to waste or languish; pa. pple. wasted, withered.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. i. 30 Þou languissed and art deffeted for talent and desijr of þi raþer fortune. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 136/1 My body is deffeted by the tormentis, that the woundes suffre nothyng to entre in to my thought. |
† 3. To destroy the beauty, form, or figure of; to disfigure, deface, spoil. Obs.
| 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xli. 65 a/2 She was soo deffayted and dysfygured by the grete abstynences that she made. Ibid. i. l. 101 b/2 His vysage..was also pale and dyffeated as of a deed man. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. iv. iii. (ed. W. de W.) 83 Dryenesse..makyth the body euyll colouryd, and defacyth and defetyth [corpus discolorat et deformat; Harl. MS. 4787 (c 1410) euel y-hewed & defaceþ & defete; Addit. MS. 27944 (c 1425) euel I-hewed & defactif & defete; orig. probably euel yhewed & defaced & defet]. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 346 Defeate thy fauour, with an vsurp'd Beard. |
† 4. Hunting. To cut up (an animal). Obs.
| 14.. Le Venery de Twety in Rel. Ant. I. 153 And whan the hert is take..and shal be defeted. Ibid. 154 And whan the boor is i-take, he be deffetyd al velue. |
5. To bring to nought, cause to fail, frustrate, nullify (a plan, purpose, scheme, etc.).
| 1474 Caxton Chesse 65 Thynges and honoures shal ben defetid by sodeyn deth. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 34 b, Whiche illusyon..as soone as it was detected ..anone it auoyded & was defeted. 1538 Starkey England iv. 118 Yf hyt were wel ordryd justyce schold not be so defettyd. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. iii. 40 My stronger guilt, defeats my strong intent. 1660 Hickeringill Jamaica (1661) 73 The most promising designs..are many times easily defeated. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. x. (1743) 204 Almost sufficient to defeat the old adage, ‘Rome was not built in a day’. 1781 Cowper Charity 38 To thwart its influence, and its end defeat. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 414 To..defeat the ulterior objects of the articles. 1855 Emerson Misc. 223 A man who commits a crime defeats the end of his existence. |
6. Law. To render null and void, to annul.
| 1525 Tunstal, etc. To Wolsey (MS. Cott. Vesp. C iii. 189 b), In case ye wold have these points at this tyme be expresse convention defeatyd. 1583 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) II. 62 Herbye defeating all former will and willes, by me att anye tyme made. 1642 Perkins Prof. Bk. iv. §279 This exchange is good until it be defeated by the wife or her heire. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 142 The lessee's estate might also, by the antient law, be at any time defeated, by a common recovery suffered by the tenant of the freehold. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) II. 49 A condition that defeats an estate. 1848 Wharton Law Lex. s.v. Defeasance, A Defeasance on a bond..defeats that in the same manner. |
7. To do (a person) out of (something expected, or naturally coming to him); to disappoint, defraud, cheat.
| 1538 Starkey England i. iv. 121 The credytorys holly are defayted of theyr dette. 1542–3 Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 20 §1 Feined recoueries..to binde and defete their heires inheritable by the limitacion of suche giftes. 1569 Newton Cicero's Olde Age 14 a, That they might defeate him from the use and possession of his goods. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 382 That thou maist not be defeated of that glory which awaits for thee. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 254 Death..Defeated of his seisure. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 475 A means of defeating their landlords of the security which the law has given them. 1777 Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 6 Oct., Having been defeated of my first design. 1846 Mill Logic iii. xxvi. §3 The assertion that a cause has been defeated of an effect that is connected with it by a completely ascertained law of causation. |
† b. To deprive of (something one already possesses); to dispossess. Obs.
| 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxxvi. xlvii. (1634) 301 Rogero sunders them..Then of their daggers he them both defeateth. 1606 Day Ile of Guls i. ii. (1881) 12 That whosoeuer..can defeate him of his daughters shall with theyr loues inioy his dukedome. 1677 Govt. Venice 29 They are never defeated of those marks of Honour, unless they have done something dishonourable. |
8. To discomfit or overthrow in a contest; to vanquish, beat, gain the victory over: a. in battle.
The sense gradually passes from ‘undo, annihilate, ruin, cut to pieces, destroy, rout’, in the early quots., to that merely of ‘beat, gain the victory over, put to the worse’, in the modern ones. (Not in Shakes.)
| 1562 J. Shute Cambine's Turk. Wars 6 The armie of Baiazith was defeicted, and he taken by Tamerlano. 1579 E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. June, Great armies were defaicted and put to flyght at the onely hearing of hys name. 1606 Holland Sueton. 15 After this, he defeited Scipio and Ivba. Ibid. 47 When Lollius and Varrus were defaited. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. 47 Then..he made an end of defeating them, the most of them being constrained to leap into the Sea. 1667 Ld. Orrery State Lett. (1743) II. 213 Three English ships..fell on the Irish, killed some, and defeat the rest. 1776 Trial of Nundocomar 64/2 Their army was defeated before the walls of Patna. 1838 Thirlwall Greece IV. 437 An engagement followed, in which Therimachus was defeated and slain. 1861 Westm. Rev. Oct. 497 But though defeated the Cotton States were not vanquished. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1781 Cowper Retirement 781 'Tis love like his that can alone defeat The foes of man. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam vi. lii, But that she Who loved me did with absent looks defeat Despair. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 139 Isabell was not to be so easily defeated. |