English Dictionary

GET THE BETTER OF

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does get the better of mean? 

GET THE BETTER OF (verb)
  The verb GET THE BETTER OF has 1 sense:

1. win a victory overplay

  Familiarity information: GET THE BETTER OF used as a verb is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


GET THE BETTER OF (verb)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Win a victory over

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

defeat; get the better of; overcome

Context example:

Her anger got the better of her and she blew up

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "get the better of"):

demolish; destroy (defeat soundly and humiliatingly)

beat; beat out; crush; shell; trounce; vanquish (come out better in a competition, race, or conflict)

wallop (defeat soundly and utterly)

down (bring down or defeat (an opponent))

overrun (seize the position of and defeat)

lurch; skunk (defeat by a lurch)

expel; rout; rout out (cause to flee)

upset (defeat suddenly and unexpectedly)

nose (defeat by a narrow margin)

conquer (overcome by conquest)

come through; make it; pull round; pull through; survive (continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something


 Context examples 


I must try to get the better of this.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

To-morrow, I trust, I shall get the better of them partially; and in a few weeks, perhaps, they will be quite subdued.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

His feelings will soon get the better of it, I'll be bound.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Come, Nigel, lest the foul fiend get the better of me again.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was wishing to get the better of his attachment to herself, she just recovering from her mania for Mr. Elton.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get the better of himself.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

My affection for Marianne, my thorough conviction of her attachment to me—it was all insufficient to outweigh that dread of poverty, or get the better of those false ideas of the necessity of riches, which I was naturally inclined to feel, and expensive society had increased.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

To own the truth, Henry and I were partly driven out this very evening by a disappointment about a green goose, which he could not get the better of.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And how he had been so worried by what passed, that as soon as he had went away from his mother's house, he had got upon his horse, and rid into the country, some where or other; and how he had stayed about at an inn all Thursday and Friday, on purpose to get the better of it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The apothecary came, and having examined his patient, said, as might be supposed, that she had caught a violent cold, and that they must endeavour to get the better of it; advised her to return to bed, and promised her some draughts.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." (English proverb)

"The seeker is a finder." (Afghanistan proverb)

"Complaining to someone other than God is disgraceful." (Arabic proverb)

"To make your neighbor jealous, go to bed early and get up early." (Corsican proverb)



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