AEE 2675: Smoked, Crushed, or Swept? How to Talk About Clear Victories

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2675, Smoked, Crushed, or Swept, How to Talk About Clear Victories in English. Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.

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Did your team beat the competition soundly? Today, get five new and casual ways to say that you easily beat someone to build connection with teammates.

Hey there, Aubrey. What's shaking? I'm great. How are you, Lindsay? I am so good. Glad to be back on the microphone. Aubrey, do you follow any sports teams?

I mean, any teams that you love? I know Michelle loves, what is it? The Knicks, I think. She talks about the Knicks a lot. She loves them. I guess I follow ASU football, mostly just because all of my neighbors and my husband, they all love ASU football.

So I end up going to games, tailgating, and it is very fun. Yeah, tailgating is super fun. Fun when ASU wins. But other than that, there aren't really a lot of sports teams that I'm a diehard fan.

What about you, Lindsay? Oh, not really. I mean, I live in Denver. So people love the Broncos, but I'm from New England. So people love the Patriots. I mean, you know, I don't really I'm not a big sports watcher.

Yeah, right. I'm like, I'll root for the underdog. I'm like watching whatever, but I don't have a lot of people are like so into sports and they're betting on sports and they really care about one team. That's not me.

I'm happy for whoever wins. Some people are just every Sunday, they're on the couch, they're watching football. It's like, for me, it's too much. You know, you have to be able to have some variety in your weekends, I think.

Totally. But what's really interesting is how so much of our language, so much of English is built around sports, right? Idioms from sports. And the ways that we talk about winning decisively are used in so many ways in English.

So we're talking about that today, how to describe, you know, winning something decisively. It might be a competition, a sport, a game, or like a debate or, you know, doing well at work. It's a solid defeat is the vocabulary we're talking about today. When you win so decisively, the other person didn't stand a chance.

Yeah. And a lot of these phrases might have started in sports, but have adapted, like you said, to the working world, to projects you're working on. So it can be kind of fun, a good way to express yourself by using these in different realms. Yes.

And we actually taught Stand a Chance in a recent episode. So stay to the end. If you missed that, we'll share details. Yeah. But this is great for connection because, as we said, people love sports and competition.

They feel very passionately, but people also just love to win, to feel successful. And I think that's why, Lindsay, a lot of these phrases have been adopted elsewhere in English. It's fun to celebrate a win and share that with others. Yes, the feeling and you say the phrase, it feels good.

And that does build that connection, right? And guys, go ahead and hit the follow button. We're all about connection over here on All Airs English. And you don't want to miss this series, right?

This is a part one of a two-part series. But part two is going to be where, Aubrey? It's going to be on Business English. So be sure to also follow the Business English podcast so that you don't miss part two of this series.

We often will do this where we're sharing the phrases we use more in daily conversations here. And then over on Business English, we'll share some of the phrases that we use more at work. So be sure that you're following both podcasts. Okay.

So that's good stuff. So guys, hit that follow button. And I'm excited to get into this today, Aubrey. I mean, what are some of the ways that we could describe winning decisively?

What would you say? Yeah. So we want to quickly share about blew them away. We say this a lot that you blew someone away. Yeah. And we also shared this recently on All There's English 2556.

Don't blow off phrasal verbs. We covered blew away. So you can find more details about that one. But one quick example here, you might say, you know, our team blew them away in the second half.

It wasn't even a fair fight. So this isn't for games that are close, right? It means you really won by a lot. Yeah. Like if you're a tennis player, you won 6-0, 6-0, right?

Double straight sets. Yeah. Good stuff. So what are other things we could say then, Aubrey? Yeah. So the next one is to beat someone soundly. This adverb soundly means someone is a clear winner.

There's no doubt who was better. So for example, the home team beat them soundly, 4-0. Or she beat her opponent soundly in the debate. Yes. Or this could even be at work if someone is like a clear candidate, the clear candidate to be chosen after maybe a panel interview, several rounds of interviews.

You might say this to a coworker like... You know what? I'm not surprised he was hired. He really beat everyone soundly. And it has nothing to do with like an actual sport or something you actually did.

We just use this phrase just to mean someone was the clear winner, the clear choice. Yeah. It is a little bit more formal than the other ones that we're going to talk about now, right? We're going to give our listeners some pretty casual ones.

But for me, this beat them soundly feels a little more, I don't know, fancy or formal to me. Definitely. Definitely more formal. I feel like we talk about this with political debates.

We'll say one politician beat the other one soundly. And yeah, that adverb is a little more formal and rare in English, soundly, for something to happen soundly. So I think that really elevates the vocabulary here for that one. Yeah.

But the next one, I love it. It's so fun. Smoked. So this is really fun, right? To defeat someone very easily. So it almost makes it feel like it was effortless, right?

We smoked them in the finals. It wasn't even close. Again, it's that 6-0, 6-0 situation. Yes, I've started playing chess with my son. And this is his favorite thing to say when he wins.

He'll be like smoked. Yeah, it means like I beat you soundly or like I won, but it's a fun way to say it. That's awesome. I love that. Speaking of chess, another example, he thought he'd win the chess match, but she totally smoked him.

So yeah, this is very casual, very informal, but it's pretty common. I say this a lot to like, oh, he smoked me means he beat me by a lot. It's the worst to get smoked. It happens.

It happens. It happens. Or crushed. It's also really bad to get crushed, right? Again, this is to completely lose a competition in a very drastic way.

Exactly. It's kind of strong and emotional, I would say, right? It definitely works both for sports and everyday situations. So we might say they crushed the competition this season, or our team got crushed last night.

It was honestly rough to watch. But we'll also talk about being crushed sort of emotionally by something, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, when I didn't get the job, it really crushed me.

Like it really crushed me, we could say. Would you say that? Yeah, I would say that. Yes. I was crushed when I didn't get the job or it crushed me. Absolutely.

Right. So we use this both for like losing at a competition and also any kind of loss that just really affects us. It's a pretty powerful or emotional loss. Yeah.

But be careful, guys, because this is different from saying you have a crush on someone, right? That's different. Okay. Totally different context here.

Yeah, that means you like someone, you have feelings for them, right? And this is like the opposite. This is negative to be crushed. Your crush might crush you if they dump you.

Exactly. I love it. All right, Aubrey, we're back with a couple more fun examples, really casual stuff here. What's the next one? What would be Yeah. The next one is cleaned the floor with someone to defeat them so badly.

It's almost embarrassing for them, right? This is maybe used to brag, right? Sometimes some people will like trash talk and be like, we cleaned the floor with them. It means we beat them by a lot and we're bragging about it.

Yeah. I feel like you have to have a lot of confidence to say this, right? And you better have really won by a lot. Yeah. They shouldn't have gotten any points really, right?

Exactly. Or she cleaned the floor with everyone in that competition. Exactly. Yeah. And so this is interesting. It kind of brings up, you know, because again, my son, we're playing chess a lot and he'll trash talk, he'll brag.

And I'll talk to him about sportsmanship because like a little bit is okay if it's lighthearted and fun, but it can easily be too much or mean spirited, right? So that's really a fine line of like being a good sport and using some of these phrases in the right context, but not like bragging too much or going overboard. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good opportunity to teach him that, I think, for sure.

Yeah, absolutely. You got to learn it somewhere, right? And then to sweep, right? Or the past tense of sweep, Aubrey, is what? Swept. Yeah. So that's an interesting past participle.

And this means to win every or almost every game in a series if you swept, right? Yeah. So for example, they swept the series three to zero. Yeah. Or she swept the competition at that tournament, we could say.

Or our team swept their rivals this weekend. So this isn't usually for like one game, one match. It usually means some kind of series or competition where you clean up, right? Where you do really well over the whole competition.

Oh, man. I feel like when I played junior tennis, I used to lose all the time. So I would always get crushed by my opponent. You know, it happens. It happens to the best of us.

And that's the interesting thing is, can you be a good loser and a good winner, right? I have to talk to my son, like, you don't want to be a sore loser, but you also don't want to be a sore winner, you know, bragging and rubbing it in. Imagine if the people who beat you at those tennis games, Lindsay, were like, bragging and making you feel even worse about it. There's a lot to learn for kids in sports, don't you think?

I mean, a lot of important lessons for life, teamwork, winning, losing, that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of it doesn't just come naturally. Like they have to learn that somewhere, right?

Interesting. Yeah. All right, Aubrey, let's jump into a role play because we know our listeners love our signature role plays. What's the scenario here?

All right. You and I are friends and we are rooting for the same basketball team and we're discussing last night's game. Want to start us out? Yeah. Yeah.

Hey, Aubrey, did you catch the game last night? Oh, yeah, it was incredible. Our team crushed them. Oh, I know. They basically cleaned the floor with them in the second half.

Yes, and honestly, I couldn't be happier, especially since they completely smoked us last season. Oh, for sure. But our team has really turned things around this year. I feel like we've swept the series so far.

Yes, we've been beating teams pretty soundly. Hopefully it stays that way. Nice. This is funny because this is very dissimilar from any conversation you and I have had, but I overhear conversations like this all the time.

Oh, really? Yeah. My neighbors will be playing and then they'll start talking about the Suns, maybe the Phoenix Suns or ASU football, ASU basketball. And then I'll just listen while they have this conversation because I don't know.

I don't have anything to add. No, that is my reality. Anytime I'm around my in-laws and my partner is around- the parents, it's a lot of sports talk. I mean, they don't, they'll go into it intensively and talk about this guy was traded to this team and this player and that, and that it's really in depth.

Luckily they don't do it the whole time, but they'll go into it. And I just tune out exactly as you're saying, right? It's so tricky. And you don't want to always be the one that's like, can we talk about something else?

Like you're trying to be interested. You're asking questions. Like, you know, they really care about it. You don't, you No, no, they know. They know I'm in La La Land.

I'm somewhere else in my head. Oh, yeah. Open a book. No, no. I just I literally I just go to my phone. I read The New York Times. Oh, that's funny. They'll have the conversation.

They'll chat with you about something else later. There's no point. Sometimes some topics are just like they know I'm not interested. And I I don't know.

We're not kind of trying to show different sides of ourselves anymore. Right. Or you know what happens. That happens to me wherever, when I'm with family friends, like sometimes they're going to have a conversation and you just sort of excuse yourself, go talk to someone else about something else.

Right. And that's fine too. Right. As long as it's, it's like the, when you're chatting with them, they find something, you find something that you are interested in when you do talk, right?

Yeah. And when they go into sports, it's like five minutes and then they move on. Thank goodness. But it's very intense during that time. Yes, absolutely.

They would definitely have this conversation from this role play. Well, let's go over it here. I first said, yes, the game was incredible. Our team crushed them.

That means they won decisively. As we said, they won by a lot. Yes. Yes. And then I said, I know they basically clean the floor with them. Right. This is our fun, slangy way of saying they really.

Yeah. They killed them. It's such a funny idiom. Because if you imagine someone taking a person and cleaning the floor with them, like what a crazy idiom.

But we do use this to mean they won by a lot. They beat them. They were much better at the game. And there's a lot of other expressions too. We haven't covered all, we could probably do a part two on other expressions.

Like they killed them is another way of saying they beat them decisively, right? They killed us in the second quarter. Exactly. And we are doing a part two over on Business English.

And we will definitely include killed them. And this is really interesting because a lot of these we use in everyday language like this. And then some of them, some of these are a little too informal to really use at work. You might every now and then,

But there are others that we do use more often at work. So be sure to hit follow so that you can get all of the related phrases that we use more at work. I love it. And then you said, Aubrey, what was the next line?

Yes. And I said they completely smoked us last season. So I'm saying like, I'm really glad we're winning now because last season they killed us. Like you said, they smoked us.

They destroyed us. Yep. All these other ways to say it. A lot of ways to say it. I said, I feel like we've swept the series so far, meaning you haven't lost yet.

Exactly. We're undefeated probably if we've swept the series. And then I say, yeah, we've been beating teams pretty soundly. So that means they're not close games, right?

We're not like nail biters. They're not nail biters where you're not sure who will win until the very last moment. If we're beating them soundly, we're winning by a lot. All right.

Really good stuff. Now I feel so motivated to go out and find a sport that I can, you know, wipe the floor, clean the floor. Funny. Aubrey, another episode for our listeners to check out right away.

Guys, go over to 2599. Build someone's confidence by fighting this battle. And that's where we taught doesn't stand a chance and some related vocabulary. So check that out.

And then, yes, hit follow so that you can hear part two of this series over on Business English. Yeah. Where should we leave our listeners today, Aubrey? Yeah, this is really interesting.

I think one of the best connection thoughts here is about not bragging when you beat someone soundly, right? That's not a good feeling. If someone just lost, they already don't feel great about it. And it's okay to a little bit maybe, you know, not brag, but like you can mention it.

but you're not going to want to go too hard. It just at that point is cruel. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, no, that's a really good point for connection. I mean, these phrases are meant to be used between two people that maybe, you know, that are not the losing party, not part of the losing party, right?

They're not really said to the person who was just beat. You might hear these in newspaper headlines, sports headlines, right? Or like this role play, we're talking about our team who beat someone. But if you and I play chess, and you beat me soundly, you probably wouldn't say, I'm so glad I wiped

the floor with you. Yeah. We don't want to rub it in. And we could actually, that would be a great episode idea. Aubrey, for another day, expressions that, you know, talk about when you, being a sore loser, like what, what do, yeah.

How to say you're being a sore loser or sorry, a sore winner, let's say. So we don't want to rub it in, but anyways. You don't want to rub it in. That's really a good phrase there.

It means like you don't want to make them feel worse. Exactly. You got it. So guys, it's all about connection and we will see you on the next episode.

Right, Aubrey? Yes. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. See you next time. Take care. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level?

Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.