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Glite Dictionary
to beat the odds

to beat the odds

16 5.3
To succeed despite great difficulty or low chances
  • idiom
translation icon : triunfar contra todo pronóstico
  • Sometimes we live to beat the odds.

Evelyn Adams, a clerk in a convenience store, really beat the odds.

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Examples

  • Let's not forget that this is a guy who beat the odds to survive.

    Blog text (7)

  • Will anyone be able to beat the odds and take the nomination from him?

    Blog text (24)

  • And you can try to beat the odds.

    Lansky (2021)

  • Every day we set foot outside, we beat the odds.

    What Happened to Monday (2017)

  • I am the man who beat the odds.

    Captured (1998)

  • Sometimes you can beat the odds with a careful choice of where to fight

    Sin City (2005)

  • We beat the odds, baby!

    Overnight Delivery (1998)

  • Pot, he feels, may be his best chance to beat the odds.

    Blog text (34)

  • He was a person of color who beat the odds to become a person of power.

    Eddington (2025)

  • Against all expectations, she managed to beat the odds and graduate with honors.

Synonyms

to hit a home run
vsto beat the odds
  • Informal
17 3.4

To have a big success people do not expect

highlights great success but not the struggle or unlikely circumstances behind it
to overachieve
vsto beat the odds
1 5.3

To do better than people expect and have more success

is about succeeding despite hardship or low chances rather than mere high performance
to defy all odds
vsto beat the odds
  • Informal
1 6.2

To succeed or survive despite big problems that make success unlikely

is about succeeding despite difficulty even if chances are not extremely low
to push through adversity
vsto beat the odds
5.3

To keep trying and do well despite difficult times

focuses on succeeding despite difficulty rather than the continued effort itself
to beat all expectations
vsto beat the odds
3.9

To do much better than people expected

focuses on exceeding predictions rather than necessarily overcoming big difficulty

Antonyms

to give up
∞ 1.2

To stop trying to do something or accept defeat

to fail
898 1.0

Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do

How Unlikely

to beat the odds
16 5.3
to overcome
429 2.9
to succeed
846 2.0

Surface Forms

beat the odds infinitive
beat the odds past
beaten the odds past participle
beating the odds present participle
beats the odds third person singular

Morphology

beat + the + odds

The verb 'beat' (to defeat) combined with 'odds' (chances or likelihood) transparently yields the sense of defeating the chances against you, i.e. succeeding despite low probability. This compositional logic is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase beat the odds comes from betting, where the 'odds' are the chances of winning and to beat them means to win when the chances are small. So, it now means 'to succeed despite great difficulty'.