Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To surpass in cleverness or cunning; outsmart.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The faculty of observation, or the knowledge gained by observation and experience: opposed to inwit.
- To surpass in intelligence.
- To surpass in plots or stratagems; defeat or frustrate by superior ingenuity; prove too clever for.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To surpass in wisdom, esp. in cunning.
- transitive verb To defeat or gain an advantage over by superior craft or cunning stratagems.
- noun obsolete The faculty of acquiring wisdom by observation and experience, or the wisdom so acquired; -- opposed to
inwit .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
get the better of ; tooutsmart , tobeat in a competition ofwits .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb beat through cleverness and wit
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Ethan Zohn, once a professional soccer player, proved he has what it takes to "outwit" and "outlast" when he won the reality T.V. show "Survivor: Africa."
Alliance for Global Conservation: Guest Post: Ethan Zohn - Saving the Hotbeds of Pharmaceutical Innovation Before They're Gone Alliance for Global Conservation 2010
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I think it was smart of Sugar to mastermind a coup this close to the end to add to her 'outwit' credit with the jury, but neither her or Suzie can win in the jury against Bob, Matty or Kenny.
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Today, no poet could outwit any reader who has an Internet connection.
Literary Allusion in the Age of Google Adam Kirsch 2011
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Thats just to bad, He tried to outwit the very organization that allows him to hunt.
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And even more importantly, is there a way to outwit such professionals, short of announcing one's monetary limit outright?
The Outrage of the Upsell Lettie Teague 2011
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Soviet experts were confident the USSR could outwit any missile defense system the Americans built at a fraction of the cost.
The Return Daniel Treisman 2011
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Thats just to bad, He tried to outwit the very organization that allows him to hunt.
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Each person trying to outwit the next person, while everybody else tries to pick each others' pocket.
Grey Zones James Joist 2011
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While Jaime tries to cooperate with and outwit his captor, Marta and Isa find themselves at the mercy of two less rational members of the home-invasion team.
Marshall Fine: HuffPost Review: Kidnapped Marshall Fine 2011
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But Mawuli glowers at Papa, apparently thinking about how to outwit Papa, not thinking about Mary Catherine.
Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011
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