Language tip of the week: win

In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. In this series of language tips we look at how metaphor is used to express some common concepts in English. This week’s tip looks at metaphors used to talk about winning:

Winning a competition or game is like hitting or killing your opponent. Losing is like being injured.

Scotland beat England 1–0.
They were thrashed by Manchester United.
The home team annihilated the opposition.
The home team took a real battering.
We hammered them in the final.
She slaughtered me last time we played tennis.
They suffered a crushing defeat by the Spanish side.
They were knocked out of the competition.
It was a knockout competition.
There was a sudden death play-off for third place.