Defeat is the action and effect of defeating or being defeated. The verb defeat, on the other hand, refers to defeating or winning in a confrontation, to break or destroy, or to ruin someone’s health or property.
For example: “The Brazilian team suffered a tough defeat that left them with no chance of advancing in the tournament”, “The coach resigned after the fourth consecutive defeat of his team”, “I am the image of defeat: my wife abandoned me, I lost my job and they are about to evict me. ”
The origin of the term is found in the French déroute and is linked to the flight of an army. To defeat an enemy army, therefore, is to achieve complete defeat, which is usually followed by a disorderly flight of the defeated: “Tell the General that I will not tolerate another defeat”, “The defeat caused the country to lose great extensions of territory in the south”, “We are not going to stop our efforts until we achieve the defeat of our enemy”.
There are many military defeats that have left a deep mark on the history of a specific country. Thus, for example, in the case of the United States, among the most significant are the Battle of Antietam in 1862, during the Civil War; that of Canada against the United Kingdom in 1812 or that of 2003 regarding the dissolution of the Iraqi army. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to Defeat.
In the case of Spain, one of the most important defeats in its history was the one that led to its Invincible Armada falling during the Anglo-Spanish War that took place between 1585 and 1604.
The most common use of the concept, however, is in the field of sports. When two teams or two competitors face each other, the usual thing is that one is consecrated as the winner of the match, the other being the defeated. In some sports, however, ties can be recorded: “FC Barcelona was responsible for a new defeat for Malaga”, “With this defeat, the Spanish tennis player loses two places in the world ranking”, “The Uruguayan team returned to the victory after four defeats”.
It must also be stated that within the maritime field the term defeat is also used, but as part of a word with another meaning. Specifically, in that one there is talk of a chart room, which is the room of the ship that is used to store all the elements (lighthouse notebooks, marine charts…) that can be used to determine the situation of the ship at sea.
On the other hand, we cannot forget the use of the word that concerns us within the agricultural sector. In his case, it is used to form the term defeat of mieses. This comes to refer to the right to be able to put the cattle on any land that is dedicated to what would be the cultivation of cereal. Specifically, this action can be carried out after the harvest with the clear objective that the animals eat the stubble that has remained.
