as in defeats
failure to win a contest
suffered a shellacking at the hands of a vastly superior opposition
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shellackings
Noun
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And the matchup gives the Rebels their chance to inflict back-to-back defeats upon the Bulldogs for the first time in almost 30 years.—
Ben Verbrugge,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Oct. 2025 -
But their four defeats have come against Tottenham, Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City — and in two of those cases, the winning goal came in stoppage time.—
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Arne Slot’s team were vulnerable after three successive losses.—
Laurie Whitwell,
New York Times,
23 Oct. 2025
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Chaparro also noted that bitcoin and ether suffered less losses compared to alternative crypto-assets in this month’s massive liquidation event.—
Liz Napolitano,
CNBC,
22 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The Blue Jays have also had to adjust their starting rotation on the fly as some harsh setbacks sprung up toward the end of the regular season.—
Peter Chawaga,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
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Early on, each test had generally improved upon previous demonstrations until SpaceX hit some setbacks at the beginning of 2025 with a series of three failed tests ending in explosions.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In July, after months of detention, which included routine beatings and other mistreatment, the men were released to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange.—
Jonathan Blitzer,
New Yorker,
21 Oct. 2025
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On many nights, Tamara would find her grandmother hunched over the kitchen table, poring over trial transcripts in which Erik and Lyle delivered hours of tearful and stomach-churning accounts of beatings, verbal lashings and rape.—
Elizabeth Wolfe,
CNN Money,
12 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Shellackings.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shellackings. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.
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