outdo
verb (used with object)
to surpass in execution or performance.
was outdoing
-
past progressiveof outdo.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
As everybody now knows, by the end of the the phrase "makes Darren Bent look a bargain" was outdoing "the game's gone mad" and "do me a favour, love" for topical hilarity.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 5, 2011
But by the late 70s Jones was outdoing them.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 16, 2010
Society, the society which should have been her birthright and was not, had thrown open its doors to her at last and everybody was outdoing everybody else in flattering and entertaining her.
From The Sisters-In-Law by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
There were few better women in the world, few whose goodness showed itself so clearly both in deeds and intentions, and yet she was conscious, rightly or wrongly, that Greif was outdoing her in generosity.
From Greifenstein by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Fritz Nettenmair thought he was outdoing the old gentleman when he whistled still more shrilly on his fingers, coughed still more wrathfully and spat still more decisively.
From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 09 Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig by Various
