defeat [dɪ'fi:t] verb transitive ESSENTIAL ■to win a victory over someone in a fight, war or competition 击败,打败,战胜•Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo.拿破伦在滑铁卢战役中被威灵顿公爵击败。 •If we can defeat the Italian team, we'll be through to the final.如果我们能打败义大利队,我们将晋身决赛。 ⇒ See also self-defeating ESSENTIAL ■to cause someone or something to fail 使失败,使落空•The proposal to change the rules was narrowly (= only just) defeated by 201 votes to 196.变更规则的提案仅以196票对201票的微弱劣势未获通过。 •Our ambitions for this tournament have been defeated by the weather.天气使我们赢得锦标赛的雄心壮志落空了。 •I'm afraid anything that involves language learning has always defeated me (= I have been unable to do it).恐怕凡是与学语言沾边的事都会把我给难倒。 [dɪ'fi:t] noun countable or uncountable ESSENTIAL ■when someone loses against someone else in a fight or competition, or when someone or something is made to fail 失败;战败;落败•At the last General Election, they suffered a crushing/humiliating defeat.在上次大选中,他们一败涂地。 •After their defeat in battle, the soldiers surrendered.士兵们在战斗中被打败后就投降了。 •She admitted/conceded defeat well before all the votes had been counted.选票尚未统计完毕,她就承认竞选失败了。 Compare victory admit defeat ■to accept that you cannot do something 承认失败•I thought I could mend the radio myself, but I've had to admit defeat.本以为自己可以修好收音机,但是我不得不承认自己不行。 |