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Glite Dictionary
licked

licked

6.1
Feeling beaten and worn down after losing to an opponent
  • adjective
  • /lɪkt/
  • Informal
translation icon : derrotado
  • Despite their best efforts, the champions were licked in the final match.

Examples

  • He was licked in the debate, unable to counter his opponent's strong arguments.

  • After a tough tournament game, the team felt completely licked by their opponents.

  • They're just pushing the wax into the brows and it's just giving it that true cow licked look.

Antonyms

victorious
62 3.7

A person who has won a contest or match and feels proud

unbeaten
18 2.8

Not having lost a game or fight

How Defeated

annihilated
  • NSFW
7.0
crushed
4.2
licked
  • Informal
6.1

Surface Forms

licked positive

Morphology

licked = lick (semi-transparent) = lick + ed

Formally the past-participle/adjectival '-ed' is regular, but the figurative sense 'defeated' derives from an informal sense of 'lick' that learners who only know the literal 'tongue' meaning may not predict.

Etymology

Licked comes from the everyday verb lick, which means 'to pass the tongue over', but long ago people also used lick to mean 'to beat' or give someone a hard time, as in 'get a licking'. So, being licked means being defeated or overcome.