See admit defeat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "admits defeat",
"tags": [
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"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "admitting defeat",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "admitted defeat",
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{
"form": "admitted defeat",
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]
}
],
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},
"expansion": "admit defeat (third-person singular simple present admits defeat, present participle admitting defeat, simple past and past participle admitted defeat)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "49 51",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
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"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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109,
121
]
],
"ref": "1978 December 9, Mitzel, “Post-Briggs Blues”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 5:",
"text": "Sure. Comforting news. If that's the extent of the left's imagination, we may as well throw in the cards and admit defeat and go en masse to sign up at our nearest Anita Bryant Treatment Center!",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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"ref": "1992 September 25, “Mellor Quits at Last”, in The Sun:",
"text": "Mellor was forced to admit defeat in the wake of his fling with toe-sucking Antonia de Sancha and foreign trips with blonde Mona Bauwens.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To accept that one has lost a fight or competition."
],
"id": "en-admit_defeat-en-verb-g8hTk8pU",
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],
[
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],
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]
]
},
{
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"ref": "2023 April 27, Laura He, “China may have to bail out one of its poorest provinces”, in CNN Business:",
"text": "One of China’s poorest and most indebted provinces has admitted defeat in trying to sort out its finances and is appealing to Beijing for help to avert default.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To accept that one has failed to achieve a goal."
],
"id": "en-admit_defeat-en-verb-MveoZ6nR",
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[
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]
]
}
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"word": "admit defeat"
}
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{
"form": "admitted defeat",
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},
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"ref": "1978 December 9, Mitzel, “Post-Briggs Blues”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 5:",
"text": "Sure. Comforting news. If that's the extent of the left's imagination, we may as well throw in the cards and admit defeat and go en masse to sign up at our nearest Anita Bryant Treatment Center!",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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"type": "quotation"
}
],
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],
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{
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70
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"text": "One of China’s poorest and most indebted provinces has admitted defeat in trying to sort out its finances and is appealing to Beijing for help to avert default.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To accept that one has failed to achieve a goal."
],
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[
"accept",
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],
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]
]
}
],
"word": "admit defeat"
}
Download raw JSONL data for admit defeat meaning in English (2.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (ade7ec3 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.