These words agree when they mean to overcome an opponent in a competition or struggle. Defeat , the most general of these terms, has a wide range of applications, but does not itself connote any particular margin of victory or the ease with which it has been effected: barely defeated after a long, fiercely waged struggle; utterly and humiliatingly defeated and put to rout. Sports writers have adopted defeat and the other terms to their own use: All Blacks defeat England, 13-8.

Best implies merely that one gets the better of his opponent: The secretary was bested by the treasurer in the controversy over the proposed increase in membership fees. Best has a more formal tone to it than defeat . Beat , unlike defeat , implies that one’s opponent is completely overcome: Achilles beat Hector. Beat , though quite often used in formal contexts, is equally at home in informal contexts, and can be used to describe any competition, however far removed from the field of physical combat: to beat someone at draughts. Defeat would sound a little pretentious in this context unless the draughts match were part of a formal competition.

Lick , clean up and wipe are colloquial terms meaning to beat easily. Lick sounds a little old-fashioned and is a reminder of yesterday’s adolescents, but it is still often used as a challenge. I can lick any man in the room. Like clean up and wipe , it would sound misplaced in more serious contexts. The Australian Davis Cup team may wipe or clean up the challenging nation at tennis, but we could hardly say that the Allies wiped , cleaned up or licked the Nazis in World War II. Drub is more definite, if anything, than these words in implying that the defeated party has been so badly beaten that the competition was no contest; the score was lopsided, the loser humiliated. Drub has a meaning of to beat physically and retains connotations of severe punishment, suggesting satisfaction in the administration of a sound beating.