vanquish
Americanverb (used with object)
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vanquishes,
present (3rd person singular)
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vanquished,
past participle, past
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vanquishing
present participle
verb
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to defeat or overcome in a battle, contest, etc; conquer
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to defeat or overcome in argument or debate
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to conquer (an emotion)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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vanquishernoun
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vanquishmentnoun
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unvanquishableadjective
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unvanquishedadjective
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unvanquishingadjective
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vanquishableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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vanquishsimple
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vanquishessimple
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have vanquishedperfect
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has vanquishedperfect
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am vanquishingprogressive
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are vanquishingprogressive
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is vanquishingprogressive
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have been vanquishingperfect progressive
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has been vanquishingperfect progressive
Past
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vanquishedsimple
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had vanquishedperfect
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was vanquishingprogressive
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were vanquishingprogressive
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had been vanquishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vanquish
1300–50; Middle English vencuschen, venquisshen < Old French vencus past participle and venquis past tense of veintre < Latin vincere to overcome
Explanation
To vanquish is to be the complete and total winner, to overpower and overcome, whether in a contest, a race, or a war. It generally suggests a total trouncing, to the point of humiliation — or worse — for the loser. Sometimes words for the same thing are effective in different ways because they offer different levels of meaning. For example, in a game, you can simply win, or you can vanquish your opponent. The former is enough, but the latter makes that defeat sound so much worse, like a total rout. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once stated, "Against war it may be said that it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished revengeful."
Vocabulary lists containing vanquish
Grade 10, List 1
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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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.
See Examples For:
Warsh has vowed the Fed will vanquish inflation and meet its 2% goal, but Wall Street investors have grown more doubtful.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
Martin writes in “The Hedge Knight” that Aerion “could vanquish Ser Duncan the Tall, but not Dunk of Flea Bottom.”
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2026
One of these companies has a slightly more tolerable vision than the rest, although it’s fair to question whether any one of these ideals could ever vanquish the others.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2026
The leader of one such community, Gaspar Yanga, forced Spanish authorities to recognize its autonomy, after troops failed to vanquish him in 1608.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2026
That woman had a devious mind that was only predictable when she scented an opportunity to vanquish her husband.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
For instance, in one scene in the Depardieu film, Cyrano duels and vanquishes a vicomte who insults his nose.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2022
Doing so vanquishes the conflicting binocular images from both eyes, which the brain can’t overcome.
From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2022
“Do I have it in me?” she asks aloud with Fältskog, and in that moment, their merger vanquishes uncertainty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
It’s also hard to build a code that vanquishes the back-and-forth.
From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2021
The Master of the Ring is he who in the end vanquishes all of the others.
From Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium by Jessie Hubbell Bancroft
Racial discrimination has by no means been vanquished from the U.S., and no decent person wants to see race relations return to what they were 70 years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The people of New York vanquished him with none of the spite he has spent decades sowing, but with grace, love, and pride in their city.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
The diet culture of the ’90s was never totally vanquished, and Ozempic has complicated narratives about body size, health, and self-love, to put it mildly.
From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026
Iger vanquished the proxy challenge, and this week, he again defended the Fox purchase, which gave Disney control of streaming service Hulu, National Geographic channels and FX.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026
This spirit often turned the victors into the vanquished.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Whether it’s vanquishing assailants or surreptitiously surveilling enemies, daemons provide significant advantages for their masters.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
As the play opens he is returning to Rome as a lauded hero, having led the city’s forces in vanquishing the Goths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
However, once Hernán Cortés triumphed, the conquistadors went from waging war — vanquishing the Aztecs — to the project of subjugating Indigenous holdouts and building a self-sustaining territory loyal to the crown.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026
The demand for justice for a woman resonates with Durga Puja anyway, a festival built around a goddess vanquishing evil.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2024
He fared better than his twin, vanquishing an elderly knight whose mount was bedecked with silver griffins against a striped blue-and-white field.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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.
