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.
After the chaos Russia sustained in the 1990s, Mr. Putin, having brought stability, expected to be heralded by the West the way Alexander I was after Waterloo.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
The rally will then take place at Waterloo Place; speeches and music must conclude by 17:00 BST, and the assembly must end by 17:30.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
On his mother's side, he was descended from Lt Gen Sir Edward Barnes, a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo; on his father's, from the 19th-Century Bengali reformer Brahmananda Keshub Chandra Sen.
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2026
The major motorways that strike west from the capital bypass the county entirely; the trains from London Waterloo to the local station at Dorchester take a leisurely three hours.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
The same delicious mud that’s salvation to manioc is the Waterloo of an automobile.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
