transitive. To improve upon, surpass, better. In early use with personal object. Later chiefly colloquial: to produce something better than. Now rare.

To go beyond (something done or existing) in action or achievement; to do something that is more or better than.

To overtop, excel, outdo, surpass, beat. (At first northern dialect.)

figurative or in figurative context: in quot. 1586, ? to ‘put to one's trumps’, to nonplus; now usually, to beat, to ‘cap’.

North American colloquial. To get ahead of or prevail over (another), esp. in competition; to anticipate, improve upon (cf. 10a).