From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe systemthe systemRULE/REGULATIONthe official rules and powerful organizations that restrict what you can do You can’t beat the system. → system
Examples from the Corpus
beat the system• A special unit will be set up to stop crooks beating the system.• Very few beat the system and those who did were not much encouraged by Bloomsbury House.• If we can not beat the system, how can we get it to work for us?• You can't beat the system and shouldn't want to, because it represents a co-operative progress towards shared goals.• Available as both saloon and fastback, the Rover 820 Si 16v is designed to beat the system on two counts.• Prosecutors have warned that broader use of lie detectors will only give criminals another way to beat the system. 