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Get the better of   /gɛt ðə bˈɛtər əv/   Listen
verb
Get  v. t.  (past got, obs. gat; past part. got or gotten; pres. part. getting)  
1.
To procure; to obtain; to gain possession of; to acquire; to earn; to obtain as a price or reward; to come by; to win, by almost any means; as, to get favor by kindness; to get wealth by industry and economy; to get land by purchase, etc.
2.
Hence, with have and had, to come into or be in possession of; to have. "Thou hast got the face of man."
3.
To beget; to procreate; to generate. "I had rather to adopt a child than get it."
4.
To obtain mental possession of; to learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; as to get a lesson; also with out; as, to get out one's Greek lesson. "It being harder with him to get one sermon by heart, than to pen twenty."
5.
To prevail on; to induce; to persuade. "Get him to say his prayers."
6.
To procure to be, or to cause to be in any state or condition; with a following participle. "Those things I bid you do; get them dispatched."
7.
To betake; to remove; in a reflexive use. "Get thee out from this land." "He... got himself... to the strong town of Mega." Note: Get, as a transitive verb, is combined with adverbs implying motion, to express the causing to, or the effecting in, the object of the verb, of the kind of motion indicated by the preposition; thus, to get in, to cause to enter, to bring under shelter; as, to get in the hay; to get out, to make come forth, to extract; to get off, to take off, to remove; to get together, to cause to come together, to collect.
To get by heart, to commit to memory.
To get the better of, To get the best of, to obtain an advantage over; to surpass; to subdue.
To get up, to cause to be established or to exit; to prepare; to arrange; to construct; to invent; as, to get up a celebration, a machine, a book, an agitation.
Synonyms: To obtain; gain; win; acquire. See Obtain.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Get the better of" Quotes from Famous Books



... uttered for him alone by a voice which influenced all Europe, while the eager hand was running over the paper, the poor perfumer felt something that was like a hot iron in his stomach. He assumed the ingratiating manner which for ten years past the banker had seen all men put on when they wanted to get the better of him for their own purposes, and which gave him at once the advantage over them. Francois Keller accordingly darted at Cesar a look which shot through his head,—a Napoleonic look. This imitation of Napoleon's glance ...
— Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau • Honore de Balzac

... conversation with the attorney that Mr. Oakly walked, with resolute steps, towards the plum-tree, saying to himself, "If it cost me a hundred pounds I will not let this cunning Scotchman get the better of me." ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth

... you're thinking, man, but you're quite wrong," Patrick took the opportunity to put in hurriedly, conciliatingly. "I just happened to be coming by hungry tonight, a lonely tramp, and knocked at the window. Your wife was a bit foolish and let kindheartedness get the better of prudence—" ...
— The Moon is Green • Fritz Reuter Leiber

... knives with me and beat me—how I used to envy him! Why was it he could always get the better of me? Well, he went on trading knives and getting the better of people. Now, twenty-one years afterwards, he was doing time in the state penitentiary for forgery. He was now called a bad man, when twenty-one years ago when he did the same things ...
— The University of Hard Knocks • Ralph Parlette

... recover his appetite. The return to the north, therefore, brought on a dangerous obstruction, which the captain very unfortunately slighted, and concealed from every person in the ship, at the same time endeavouring to get the better of it by taking hardly any subsistence. This proceeding, instead of removing, increased the evil, his stomach being already weak enough before. He was afflicted with violent pains, which in the space of a few days confined him to his bed, and forced him to have recourse to medicines. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr


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