Other forms: outsmarted, outsmarts, outsmarting
To outsmart is to beat somebody by being cleverer. Outsmart the opposition, outsmarted at every turn, try to outsmart them.
It implies a contest of wits and a winner, and it is affectionate about the winner in a way that outwit is not quite. The out- prefix here means surpassing, and English makes verbs freely with it — outrun, outlast, outnumber, outsell. Note that the pattern is one of the most productive in the language.
1verboutsmartTo beat somebody by being cleverer.
“The fox outsmarted the farmer and found another way into the henhouse.”
outsmart is an outdoing.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)merd- — to bite, sting
Proto-Germanic
*smertaną — to hurt, ache
Proto-West Germanic
*smertan
Old English
*smeortan — to smart
Middle English
smerten
English
smart
English, today
outsmart
From out- + smart. smart comes from Middle English smerten, from Old English smeortan (“to smart”), from Proto-West Germanic smertan, from Proto-Germanic smertaną (“to hurt, ache”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)merd- (“to bite, sting”). Cognate with Scots smert, Dutch smarten, German schmerzen, Danish smerte, Swedish smärta.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA