Outduels

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To defeat an opponent in a formal combat involving weapons ; to surpass or outperform someone in a direct competitive contest ; to prevail over another through superior skill or strategy in a duel
2. To win against an adversary in a traditional armed confrontation ; to exceed another's abilities or achievements in a face-to-face challenge ; to triumph over a rival by demonstrating greater proficiency in a duel scenario
3. To successfully overcome a competitor in a weapon-based fight ; to outmatch and outperform an opponent in a formal contest of skill ; to achieve victory over someone by means of superior dueling techniques

Etymology: "Outduels" is the third-person singular present form of "outduel", so the verb itself is the one to explain. It is formed from the prefix "out-" and the verb "duel", and the prefix has a long history of its own: it descends from an Indo-European root meaning something like "up" or "out", passed through Proto-Germanic and Old English as "ūt", then Middle English "ut", before settling into the modern English "out". The base word "duel" came into English from Latin "duellum", an older form of "bellum" meaning "war", which is why the earliest sense of a duel was closer to a private combat than a sporting bout. Attaching "out-" to it produces a verb meaning to beat an opponent by superior dueling, a pattern English uses freely with words like "outrun" or "outwit" to mean surpassing someone in a given activity.

Synonyms: outfights, outmatches, outperforms

Antonyms: loses, underperforms, underachieves