Etym.: Note that middle forms such as ἡττήσομαι can have passive sense.

Sense

1. to be less than another, inferior to, to yield to the power of, he had proved inferior
2. to be defeated, discomfited, worsted, beaten
3. to give way, yield, to be a slave to, to be overcome by

Examples

• εὐπορεῖτο‧ ὅτε μὲν γὰρ εὖ κατατείνοιμι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἡσσᾶτο ὁ ἀσκὸς, καὶ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ἡ φῦσα ἐσαναγκάζεσθαι‧ καὶ ἄλλως ἕτοιμον περιολισθάνειν ἦν, ἅτε ἐς τὸ αὐτὸ ἀναγκαζόμενον, τό τε τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὕβωμα, καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἀσκοῦ πληρουμένου κύρτωμα. (Hippocrates, Oeuvres Completes D'Hippocrate., , 47.21)
• ἦσαν δέ, ὡς ἐοίκεν, οὐ φερέπονοι ἐν ταῖς μάχαις, οὐδὲ λογισμῷ ἢ ἐπιστήμῃ τινὶ ἀλλὰ θυμῷ χρώμενοι καθάπερ θηρία, διὸ καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἐπιστήμης καὶ φερεπονίας ἡσσῶντο. (Appian, The Foreign Wars, chapter 3:4)
• ἔνθα τῆς ἐπιούσης εὐθὺς ἡσσᾶτο, καὶ τὸν χάρακα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν Βαιτύκην ἔλαβεν ὁ Σκιπίων. (Appian, The Foreign Wars, chapter 5 1:5)
• προσιόντος δ αὐτοῖς τοῦ Λευκόλλου, ὁ μὲν Μιθριδάτης τὸ πεζὸν ἅπαν καὶ μέρος τι τῶν ἱππέων ἐπὶ λόφου συνεῖχε, τῇ λοιπῇ δ ἵππῳ Τιγράνης τοῖς σιτολογοῦσι Ῥωμαίοις περιπεσὼν ἡσσᾶτο. (Appian, The Foreign Wars, chapter 13 1:5)
• οἱᾶ δὲ ἀκμήτων ἡσσῶντο κεκμηκότες, καὶ τὸ πλεῖστον αὐτῶν μάλιστα τὸ ἔργον Ἱρτίου διέφθειρε, καίπερ οὐ διώκοντος αὐτοὺς ὑπὸ φόβου τῶν ἑλῶν, καὶ τῆς ἑσπέρας ἤδη μελαινομένης διέλυσεν αὐτούς. (Appian, The Civil Wars, book 3, chapter 9 7:5)

Source: Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. "A Greek-English Lexicon". revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones.

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