out-competev.
/ˌaʊtkəmˈpiːt/, U.S. /ˌaʊtkəmˈpit/ 1. transitive. To surpass, excel, or outdo (a person, etc.) in competition; to overpower or defeat (someone) in a contest.
ΚΠ
1889 Polit. Sci. Q. 4 15 What reason had Proudhon for believing that his bank, if put into open competition with moneyed institutions as they now exist.., would out-compete them all?
1922 Polit. Sci. Q. 37 109 Astor had begun his American Fur Company..and, like the smaller licensed traders, was able easily to out-compete the government factories.
1991 Reason Aug. 39/1 The special interests that seek a protectionist bailout rarely admit that they were out-competed by their foreign rivals.
2. transitive. Natural History. To be more successful than (another species, taxon, etc.) in the competition for resources; to supersede in the evolutionary process, or displace in a given habitat.
ΚΠ
1948 Ecol. Monogr. 18 303/1 Does removal of Adelina afford..just enough of an added stimulus for T. confusum so that it goes ahead to out-compete its associate?
1985 D. S. Bendall Evol. from Molecules to Men 367 Such a view would imply, for instance, that mammals progressively outcompeted the dinosaurs in the late Mesozoic to become the dominant terrestrial vertebrates in the early Tertiary.
1994 N.Y. Times 27 Sept. c3/1 Some species of plants concentrate their energy on producing structures that equip them to out-compete other species for dominance in a given habitat.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
> as lemmas
out-compete
out-compete v.
Brit. /ˌaʊtkəmˈpiːt/
, /ˌaʊtkəmˈpiːt/U.S. /ˌaʊtkəmˈpit/
/ˌaʊtkəmˈpit/ΚΠ
1873 Appletons' Jrnl. 1 Mar. 315/2 American comedians have out-competed the English on their own ground.
1994 N.Y. Times 27 Sept. c3/1 Some species of plants concentrate their energy on producing structures that equip them to out-compete other species for dominance in a given habitat.
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v.1889as lemmas