"snatch defeat from the jaws of victory" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "An ironic reversal of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "snatches defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"
      },
      "expansion": "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (third-person singular simple present snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, present participle snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, simple past and past participle snatched defeat from the jaws of victory)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
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        {
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          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Czech translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Italian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1874, Illinois sports pages, \"but when they [the Whitesocks baseball team] snatch defeat from the jaws of victory there can be little sympathy for their deserved misfortune.\" (Quoteinvestigator)"
        },
        {
          "text": "1999, Abraham Lincoln removed Gen. Ambrose Burnside from command after the Battle of Fredricksburg (11-15 December 1862), describing his actions as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory—Janis Herbert, The Civil War for Kids. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, p. 68."
        },
        {
          "text": "1999, Daniel N. Nelson, \"Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,\" Journal of the Atomic Scientists (Chicago, Illinois). October 1992."
        },
        {
          "text": "2005, William Kristol, \"Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?\" The Weekly Standard (Washington, D.C.). 6 September 2005."
        },
        {
          "text": "2007, William Easterly, \"The Ideology of Development,\" Foreign Policy (Washington, D.C.). June 11, 2007.\n... since the fall of communism, the West has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and with disastrous results."
        },
        {
          "text": "2008, Victor Davis Hanson, \"Snatching Defeat from the jaws of victory,\" National Review (New York, New York). 31 January 2008."
        },
        {
          "text": "2009, \"Teenagers snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,\" Londonderry Sentinal (Londonderry, Northern Ireland). 22 October 2009."
        },
        {
          "text": "2010, Peter Roebuck. \"Tourists snatch defeat from jaws of victory,\" Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales). 8 January 2010."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 October 4, Drachinifel, 28:18 from the start, in Battle of the Komandorski Islands - Forced to run, yet still they won, archived from the original on 2023-10-04:",
          "text": "This analysis was reflected in the fates of the respective commanding officers. McMorris, who'd managed to, by luck and judgment, retain all of his ships, was made Nimitz's chief of staff. Hosogaya, who'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, was relieved of command and forced to retire to the reserves, where he would never again be allowed an active seagoing command.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment."
      ],
      "id": "en-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory-en-verb-4x4~82Uj",
      "links": [
        [
          "suddenly",
          "suddenly"
        ],
        [
          "lose",
          "lose"
        ],
        [
          "contest",
          "contest"
        ],
        [
          "likely",
          "likely"
        ],
        [
          "win",
          "win"
        ],
        [
          "mistake",
          "mistake"
        ],
        [
          "bad",
          "bad"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment",
          "word": "转胜为败"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment",
          "word": "vykřesat porážku z vítězství"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment",
          "word": "strappare la sconfitta dalle fauci della vittoria"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "note": "вырвать поражение из цепких лап победы (vyrvatʹ poraženije iz cepkix lap pobedy, literally “snatch defeat from the tenacious paws of victory”)",
          "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cc/En-au-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory.ogg/En-au-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/En-au-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "An ironic reversal of snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "snatches defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"
      },
      "expansion": "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (third-person singular simple present snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, present participle snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, simple past and past participle snatched defeat from the jaws of victory)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Czech translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1874, Illinois sports pages, \"but when they [the Whitesocks baseball team] snatch defeat from the jaws of victory there can be little sympathy for their deserved misfortune.\" (Quoteinvestigator)"
        },
        {
          "text": "1999, Abraham Lincoln removed Gen. Ambrose Burnside from command after the Battle of Fredricksburg (11-15 December 1862), describing his actions as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory—Janis Herbert, The Civil War for Kids. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, p. 68."
        },
        {
          "text": "1999, Daniel N. Nelson, \"Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,\" Journal of the Atomic Scientists (Chicago, Illinois). October 1992."
        },
        {
          "text": "2005, William Kristol, \"Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?\" The Weekly Standard (Washington, D.C.). 6 September 2005."
        },
        {
          "text": "2007, William Easterly, \"The Ideology of Development,\" Foreign Policy (Washington, D.C.). June 11, 2007.\n... since the fall of communism, the West has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and with disastrous results."
        },
        {
          "text": "2008, Victor Davis Hanson, \"Snatching Defeat from the jaws of victory,\" National Review (New York, New York). 31 January 2008."
        },
        {
          "text": "2009, \"Teenagers snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,\" Londonderry Sentinal (Londonderry, Northern Ireland). 22 October 2009."
        },
        {
          "text": "2010, Peter Roebuck. \"Tourists snatch defeat from jaws of victory,\" Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales). 8 January 2010."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 October 4, Drachinifel, 28:18 from the start, in Battle of the Komandorski Islands - Forced to run, yet still they won, archived from the original on 2023-10-04:",
          "text": "This analysis was reflected in the fates of the respective commanding officers. McMorris, who'd managed to, by luck and judgment, retain all of his ships, was made Nimitz's chief of staff. Hosogaya, who'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, was relieved of command and forced to retire to the reserves, where he would never again be allowed an active seagoing command.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "suddenly",
          "suddenly"
        ],
        [
          "lose",
          "lose"
        ],
        [
          "contest",
          "contest"
        ],
        [
          "likely",
          "likely"
        ],
        [
          "win",
          "win"
        ],
        [
          "mistake",
          "mistake"
        ],
        [
          "bad",
          "bad"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cc/En-au-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory.ogg/En-au-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/En-au-snatch_defeat_from_the_jaws_of_victory.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment",
      "word": "转胜为败"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment",
      "word": "vykřesat porážku z vítězství"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment",
      "word": "strappare la sconfitta dalle fauci della vittoria"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "note": "вырвать поражение из цепких лап победы (vyrvatʹ poraženije iz cepkix lap pobedy, literally “snatch defeat from the tenacious paws of victory”)",
      "sense": "suddenly lose a contest one seemed very likely to win, especially through mistakes or bad judgment"
    }
  ],
  "word": "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"
}