wipe the floor with someone

English

Verb

wipe the floor with someone (third-person singular simple present wipes the floor with someone, present participle wiping the floor with someone, simple past and past participle wiped the floor with someone)

1. (informal) To be well ahead of someone, or to win a competition by a considerable margin over someone.

   The young newcomer is wiping the floor with the more experienced players.

   • 1991, Rex Mossop, The Moose That Roared, Sydney: Ironbark Press, page 157:

     A superb passer of the ball, we expected him to wipe the floor with the opposition.

2. (informal) To comprehensively beat someone in a fight.
   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter I, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, page 6:

     "Courage? Blast it all, lad, if I were twenty years younger I'd wipe the floor with you now."

Related terms

• mop the floor with someone

Translations

to win a competition by a considerable margin over the other competitors

• Finnish: murskata (fi), pyyhkiä lattiaa (+ adessive)
• French: écraser (fr), battre à plate couture (fr), réduire en miettes (fr)
• German: jemanden nass machen
• Swedish: sopa banan med någon
• Turkish: yer bezi yapmak

Further reading

• “wipe the floor with”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “wipe the floor with somebody” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.