bad to beat

adjective

Difficult to beat; sure to succeed.

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Meanings

adjectivebad to beat (not comparable)
  1. archaicnot comparableslangDifficult to beat; sure to succeed.

    "But, you see, they know nothing of discipline. If they'd only form reg'lar, and stand firm in a square, they'd be bad to beat, as them dogs of robbers would find."

    1861, Anne Bowman, Among the Tartar Tents, Or, The Lost Fathers, page 183
    1 more example

    Twenty-one yearling fillies faced the judges, and in this competition Mr. Clark's Silver Queen was an easy first, and with a little more flesh and condition will be bad to beat.

    1886, The Breeder's Gazette, page 274

Origin

Compare the phrase "beat badly"; see badly (“very much; to a great degree”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

bad to beat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20to%20beat

MLA

“bad to beat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20to%20beat. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bad to beat,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20to%20beat.

Source: bad to beat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.