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GET THE BETTER OF
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I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Win a victory over
Example:
Her anger got the better of her and she blew up
Synonyms:
defeat; get the better of; overcome
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "get the better of"):
demolish; destroy (defeat soundly and humiliatingly)
beat; beat out; crush; shell; trounce; vanquish (come out better in a competition, race, or conflict)
wallop (defeat soundly and utterly)
down (bring down or defeat (an opponent))
overrun (seize the position of and defeat)
lurch; skunk (defeat by a lurch)
expel; rout; rout out (cause to flee)
upset (defeat suddenly and unexpectedly)
nose (defeat by a narrow margin)
conquer (overcome by conquest)
come through; make it; pull round; pull through; survive (continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.))
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Context examples:
I have been pained by her manner this morning, and cannot get the better of it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He saw Mrs. Rushworth, was received by her with a coldness which ought to have been repulsive, and have established apparent indifference between them for ever; but he was mortified, he could not bear to be thrown off by the woman whose smiles had been so wholly at his command: he must exert himself to subdue so proud a display of resentment; it was anger on Fanny's account; he must get the better of it, and make Mrs. Rushworth Maria Bertram again in her treatment of himself.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
If she would but have let us know she was going out but there is a something about Fanny, I have often observed it before—she likes to go her own way to work; she does not like to be dictated to; she takes her own independent walk whenever she can; she certainly has a little spirit of secrecy, and independence, and nonsense, about her, which I would advise her to get the better of.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
She tried to get the better of it; tried very hard, as the dinner hour approached, to feel and appear as usual; but it was quite impossible for her not to look most shy and uncomfortable when their visitor entered the room.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
And though there was no second glance to disturb her, though his object seemed then to be only quietly agreeable, she could not get the better of her embarrassment, heightened as it was by the idea of his perceiving it, and had no composure till he turned away to some one else.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
