win the battle, but lose the war

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

win the battle, but lose the war (third-person singular simple present wins the battle, but loses the war, present participle winning the battle, but losing the war, simple past and past participle won the battle, but lost the war)

1. (idiomatic) To achieve a portion of a goal, but fail to achieve the entire goal.

   By turning in that one assignment, you may have won the battle, but you never turned anything else in, so in the end you lost the war.

Translations

achieve a portion of a goal

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: voittaa taistelu, mutta hävitä koko sota
• French: please add this translation if you can