Outwitted

Outwitted is the past tense and past participle of the verb outwit. To outwit someone is to defeat or surpass them through cleverness, cunning, or strategic thinking rather than by force. It implies that advantage was gained by anticipating an opponent's plans or exploiting a mistake. The term is widely used in discussions of games, debates, investigations, and problem solving, and it can describe both the victor and the sense of clever defeat in narration. A typical example: “The detective outwitted the suspect by revealing an overlooked inconsistency in the alibi.”

Origins lie in the combination of the prefix out- with wit, dating to earlier forms of English. The regular past tense is formed by doubling the consonant: outwitted; the present tense is outwit, the present participle outwitting, and the noun form outwitting refers to the act of outwitting.

Outwit emphasizes intellectual rather than physical victory and is often used to convey admiration for cleverness or emphasis on strategy. Related verbs include outsmart, outthink, outmaneuver, and outfox; antonyms include concede or yield when defeat is acknowledged. The term is common in fiction and journalism and is occasionally used in formal analysis of competitions and negotiations.

See also: outsmart, outthink, outmaneuver, outfox. References: dictionary definitions from major English dictionaries.