defeat
To overcome in battle or contest.
Example
“Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.”
Other meanings
To reduce, to nothing, the strength of.
To prevent (something) from being achieved.
Example sentences
Word history
From Middle English "defet" (disfigured).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “defeat” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.