outwit

[ out-wit ]

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verb (used with object),out·wit·ted, out·wit·ting.

to get the better of by superior ingenuity or cleverness; outsmart: to outwit a dangerous opponent.
Archaic. to surpass in wisdom or knowledge.

Origin of outwit

First recorded in 1645–55; out- + wit¹

Other words for outwit

1	outguess, outfox, outmaneuver, outthink, finesse

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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use outwit in a sentence

By dint of imposture, he outwits them; yet, in consequence of his miracles and illusions, he at length discovers himself.
Letters To Eugenia | Paul Henri Thiry Holbach
Nothing it can do to us, nothing that can happen to it, outwits us—at least more than a few hundred years at a time.
The Voice of the Machines | Gerald Stanley Lee
The expedient by which Ulysses outwits Polyphemus in the Odyssey by calling himself ουτις is clearly of the same order.
More English Fairy Tales | Various
Proverbially such acts belong to a policy that outwits itself.
Sir William Wallace | A. F. Murison
The examples in which the husband, on the other hand, outwits the wife are few.
A History of Caricature and Grotesque | Thomas Wright

British Dictionary definitions for outwit

outwit

/ (ˌaʊtˈwɪt) /

verb-wits, -witting or -witted (tr)

to get the better of by cunning or ingenuity
archaic to be of greater intelligence than

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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