Synonyms of drubbing

drubbing 1 of 2

noun

as in defeat

failure to win a contest

took a terrible drubbing in last night's basketball game

Synonyms & Similar Words

• defeat
• loss
• beating
• setback
• rout
• whipping
• shellacking
• trouncing
• overthrow
• trimming
• licking
• plastering
• failure
• collapse
• upset
• debacle
• fiasco
• flop
• lump
• shutout
• washout
• lurch
• whitewash
• nonsuccess
• fizzle

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• victory
• success
• triumph
• win
• achievement
• accomplishment
• blowout
• sweep
• landslide
• runaway
• romp
• walkover
• cakewalk
• walkaway

drubbing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of drub

1

as in pounding

to strike repeatedly

a crowd was drubbing the purse snatcher when the police arrived on the scene

Synonyms & Similar Words

• pounding
• licking
• lashing
• battering
• whipping
• beating
• hiding
• thumping
• mauling
• pelting
• spanking
• attacking
• knocking
• slapping
• hitting
• pummeling
• doing
• thrashing
• smashing
• slamming
• punching
• batting
• assaulting
• walloping
• hammering
• bludgeoning
• bashing
• whupping
• flogging
• buffeting
• clubbing
• lambasting
• smacking
• storming
• paddling
• whopping
• raiding
• chopping
• slating
• currying
• working over
• slogging
• punching out
• lathering
• boxing
• tanning
• whacking
• switching
• fibbing
• messing (up)
• roughing (up)
• belting
• belaboring
• threshing
• wounding
• whaling
• birching
• swiping
• tromping
• basting
• pommeling
• lacing
• cracking
• thwacking
• swatting
• clobbering
• rushing
• bunging up
• beating up on
• pasting
• descending (on or upon)
• socking
• assailing
• jumping (on)
• besetting
• strapping
• pouncing (on or upon)
• scourging
• cuffing
• caning
• laying on
• clouting
• whomping
• cudgeling
• lacerating
• whamming
• busting
• flagellating
• lamming
• pistol-whipping
• horsewhipping
• leathering
• mangling
• goring
• maiming
• blackjacking
• mutilating
• cowhiding
• rawhiding
• fustigating

2

as in whipping

to defeat by a large margin

we drubbed our traditional football rivals so badly that it was basically no contest

Synonyms & Similar Words

• whipping
• bombing
• overcoming
• thrashing
• shellacking
• upsetting
• burying
• beating
• trouncing
• throwing
• pasting
• routing
• whupping
• dusting
• flattening
• walloping
• mastering
• taking
• whopping
• trimming
• annihilating
• smothering
• blowing away
• waxing
• clobbering
• creaming
• overwhelming
• topping
• smoking
• whomping
• skinning
• scoring
• sweeping
• skunking
• succeeding
• surpassing
• conquering
• exceeding
• dispatching
• crushing
• eating alive
• snowing under
• running circles around
• destroying
• tromping
• beating the pants off
• wiping the floor with
• capping
• licking
• winning (against)
• prevailing (over)
• subduing
• vanquishing
• finishing
• slaughtering
• surmounting
• besting
• subjugating
• triumphing (over)
• overthrowing
• upending
• knocking over
• hurdling
• overpowering
• outdistancing
• eclipsing
• outdoing
• overmatching
• outstripping
• outshining
• knocking off
• transcending
• bettering
• edging (out)
• overtopping
• excelling
• overbearing
• flourishing
• worsting
• sinking
• outfighting
• acing (out)
• breaking
• pipping
• doing in
• nosing out

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of drubbing

Noun

After his drubbing by DeSantis, several Democrats said Jolly was campaigning more effectively. — ABC News, 13 Aug. 2026

The Blaze host Auron MacIntyre likewise opined that all the infighting over burrito pricing is a symptom of a party bracing for a midterm drubbing and pre-emptively looking for something to pin it on. — Andy Meek, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026

Meanwhile in Foxborough, it's been a long offseason since the drubbing the Patriots took in SB60. — Jim Reineking, USA Today, 27 July 2026

The pair were on hand to throw out the first pitch before the White Sox’s 12-3 drubbing of the Houston Astros, one to Murakami and the other to his interpreter, Kenzo Yagi. — Johnny Flores Jr, New York Times, 26 July 2026

And Republican figures who had tied their star to Trump fear a drubbing in the midterms so long as the war continues. — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2026

The drubbing moved the Sox to 42-38 on the season, and kept them in sole possession of first place in the AL Central. — Zach Dean Outkick, FOXNews.com, 27 June 2026

And now Starmer himself is out less than two years into a five-year mandate, his Labour government undone by a local-election drubbing and a right-wing populist rise that has scrambled the country’s two-party map. — Tristan Bove, Fortune, 23 June 2026

And without Burnham’s presence, no Labour leadership race can really materialize despite seven ministers resigning from Starmer’s government since a drubbing for the party in May’s local elections, which do not affect the national government but provide an important indication of the public’s mood. — Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 17 June 2026

Verb

The mighty Mariners, who mashed five solo home runs at raucous T-Mobile Park, clinched their title by drubbing Major League Baseball’s doormat, aka the Colorado Rockies, 9-2. — Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 25 Sep. 2025