Waterloo
Americannoun
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a village in central Belgium, south of Brussels: Napoleon decisively defeated here on June 18, 1815.
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a decisive or crushing defeat.
The candidate met her Waterloo in the national elections.
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a city in E Iowa.
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a city in SE Ontario, in S Canada.
noun
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a small town in central Belgium, in Walloon Brabant province south of Brussels: battle (1815) fought nearby in which British and Prussian forces under the Duke of Wellington and Blücher routed the French under Napoleon. Pop: 29 003 (2004 est)
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a total or crushing defeat (esp in meet one's Waterloo )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Praising a group of trainees on X, he wrote: “These Waterloo interns at baseten are hill climbing machines.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
In April, a statue of a man carrying a flag appeared in Waterloo Place near Trafalgar Square.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
"Climate change is a global issue, and it would be inaccurate to suggest that Canada alone caused or could have prevented these wildfires," says Dr Anabela Bonada from the University of Waterloo.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Organisers in Belgium said they had cancelled this weekend's reenactment of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo because of the heatwave.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
A black minister in Waterloo, Mississippi, explained his outrage at the fate that has befallen African Americans in the post-civil rights era.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
