get the better of

• “A strictly conventional man, as the conventions of his time and race went; probably some of his gayer and lighter-hearted contemporaries thought him a dull enough dog, who would not join in a carouse or a gallant adventure, but would probably get the better of you if he could in any commercial deal.”

  Christopher Columbus

• “Everyone there knew it had been a decade since Malory had lost a match or let anyone get the better of him even in a few rounds of sparring.”

  Tender Rebel

• “The female was an endearing lap sitter who was fascinated by Qwilleran's moustache and who used catly wiles to get the better of him in an argument.”

  The Cat Who Moved A Mountain

• “Another thing that cheered me up was my belief that Spring, being mad as a weaver to start with, had let his harboured spite get the better of his few remaining wits; if he thought he was dooming me to death or the chain-gang by packing me off to the States, he was well out of reckoning.”

  Flashman and the angel of the lord

• “But with a moderate degree of the favour which I have always had, my time my own, and my mind unplagued about other things, I may boldly promise myself soon to get the better of this blow.”

  Selected English Letters

• “ The Grite looked around, as if assessing whether he might take them on all at once and get the better of them.”

  Son of a Witch

• “At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies.”

  The Yellow Wallpaper

• ““I shall get the better of all these Sons of Darkness,” Morris vowed, “and in the end oblige them to acknowledge the Services they try to Traduce.””

  Simon & Schuster: Robert Morris

• “But if they are corrupted by the other Hellenes and the common practice of barbarians, and they see with their eyes and hear with their ears of the so – called free love everywhere prevailing among them, and they themselves are not able to get the better of the temptation, the guardians of the law, exercising the functions of lawgivers, shall devise a second law against them.”

  Laws

• “You'll have to get up earlier before you get the better of Robert Lefroy.”

  Dr. Wortle's School

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