Definition of "Waterloo"

Waterloo

/ˌwɔːtə(ɹ)ˈluː/

proper noun
1. A village in Walloon Brabant, Belgium; the site of a major military battle in 1815.
2. A battle fought at Waterloo, Belgium on June 18, 1815, resulting in the epic, final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.
3. The name of any of several villages, towns, and cities around the world.
  1. A place in Canada:
    A rural community in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.
    A regional municipality and city in Ontario, Canada.
    A city in La Haute-Yamaska regional county municipality, Estrie, Quebec.
  2. A number of places in the United States:
    A census-designated place in San Joaquin County, California.
    A city, the county seat of Monroe County, Illinois.
    A town in Grant Township and Smithfield Township, DeKalb County, Indiana.
    A township and unincorporated community therein, in Fayette County, Indiana.
    An unincorporated community in White River Township, Johnson County, Indiana.
    A city, the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa.
    A village and town, the county seat of Seneca County, New York.
    A town in Grant County, Wisconsin.
    A town and city therein, in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.
    A number of other townships in the United States, listed under Waterloo Township.
  3. A number of places in the United Kingdom:
    A district and large railway terminus in central London, England.
    A northern suburb of Poole, Dorset, England (OS grid ref SZ0094).
    Former name of Waterlooville, Hampshire, although Waterloo is still the name of a council ward in Waterlooville for Havant borough.
    A small suburb in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD6625).
    A suburb of Crosby, Sefton borough, Merseyside, England (OS grid ref SJ3198).
    A small village in Broadland district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TG2219).
    A small village in South Norfolk district, Norfolk (OS grid ref TM1479).
    A hamlet in Whixall parish, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ4933).
    An eastern suburb of Huddersfield, Kirklees borough, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE1716).
    A hamlet in Caerphilly county borough, Wales (OS grid ref ST1988).
  4. A city in the Western Area of Sierra Leone.
  5. A place in Australia:
    An inner southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales.
    A rural locality in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland.
    A settlement in Clare and Gilbert Valleys council area, South Australia.
    A locality in Pyrenees Shire, Victoria.
    A small town in the Shire of Dardanup, Western Australia.
  6. A suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
noun
plural Waterloos
1. Often in the term meet one's Waterloo: a notable and decisive defeat following an encounter with a powerful opponent or a problem that is too difficult.
  Quotations
  He flung his dime at a newsboy, got his Express, propped his back against the truck, and was at once rapt in the account of his Waterloo as expanded by the ingenious press.
  1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, page 173, column 1
  Surprisingly, Greenfield did not meet his Waterloo in this showdown with his competitors.
  2003, Frank Mackey, Steamboat Connections: Montreal to Upper Canada, 1816–1843
  The skull ended up as Dubois’ personal Waterloo. His work received nothing but rejection and derision throughout the next decade, and the bones became dark secrets for much of the early twentieth century, locked away in Dubois’ home, unavailable for study by other scholars.
  2003, Craig B. Stanford, Upright: The Evolutionary Key to Becoming Human