EXCEL (excelled, excelling)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: excelled    , excelling   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does excel mean? 

• EXCEL (verb)
  The verb EXCEL has 1 sense:

1. distinguish oneself

  Familiarity information: EXCEL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXCEL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they excel    ... he / she / it excels   
Past simple: excelled   
Past participle: excelled   
-ing form: excelling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Distinguish oneself

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

excel; stand out; surpass

Context example:

She excelled in math

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "excel"):

exceed; go past; overstep; pass; top; transcend (be superior or better than some standard)

outrank; rank (take precedence or surpass others in rank)

excel at; shine at (be good at)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

excellence (the quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree)

excellent (very good; of the highest quality)

 Context examples 

The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Physically, she far excelled me: she was handsome; she was vigorous.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But it was in giving the law and making his mates live up to it, that Buck excelled.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His hatred of them knew no bounds, and he excelled Martin in denunciation when he turned upon them.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A Brazilian scientist who developed a method that reduces greenhouse gas emissions from sugarcane cultivation has been awarded a prize that each year recognises a researcher whose work has excelled in the area of fertiliser use.

(Method that cuts sugarcane emissions gets global prize, SciDev.Net)

Within an hour the guests were seated around a board which creaked under the great pasties and joints of meat, varied by those more dainty dishes in which the French excelled, the spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You excel so much in the dance, Miss Eliza, that it is cruel to deny me the happiness of seeing you; and though this gentleman dislikes the amusement in general, he can have no objection, I am sure, to oblige us for one half-hour.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She reflected on the affair for some time in much perplexity, and was more than once on the point of requesting from Mr. Thorpe a clearer insight into his real opinion on the subject; but she checked herself, because it appeared to her that he did not excel in giving those clearer insights, in making those things plain which he had before made ambiguous; and, joining to this, the consideration that he would not really suffer his sister and his friend to be exposed to a danger from which he might easily preserve them, she concluded at last that he must know the carriage to be in fact perfectly safe, and therefore would alarm herself no longer.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

In the second place, I would, from my earliest youth, apply myself to the study of arts and sciences, by which I should arrive in time to excel all others in learning.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“I am very glad to hear such a good account of her,” said Lady Catherine; “and pray tell her from me, that she cannot expect to excel if she does not practice a good deal.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)