"win the battle, but lose the war" meaning in English

See win the battle, but lose the war in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-win the battle, but lose the war.ogg Forms: wins the battle, but loses the war [present, singular, third-person], winning the battle, but losing the war [participle, present, singular, third-person], won the battle, but lost the war [participle, past, present, singular, third-person], won the battle, but lost the war [past, present, singular, third-person]
Head templates: {{en-verb|win<,,won> the battle, but lose<,,lost> the war}} 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. Tags: idiomatic Translations (achieve a portion of a goal): voittaa taistelu, mutta hävitä koko sota (Finnish)
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wins the battle, but loses the war",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "winning the battle, but losing the war",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "won the battle, but lost the war",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "won the battle, but lost the war",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "win<,,won> the battle, but lose<,,lost> the war"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To achieve a portion of a goal, but fail to achieve the entire goal."
      ],
      "id": "en-win_the_battle,_but_lose_the_war-en-verb-ff5Oc2E5",
      "links": [
        [
          "portion",
          "portion#English"
        ],
        [
          "fail",
          "fail#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To achieve a portion of a goal, but fail to achieve the entire goal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "achieve a portion of a goal",
          "word": "voittaa taistelu, mutta hävitä koko sota"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-win the battle, but lose the war.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/52/En-au-win_the_battle%2C_but_lose_the_war.ogg/En-au-win_the_battle%2C_but_lose_the_war.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/En-au-win_the_battle%2C_but_lose_the_war.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "win the battle, but lose the war"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wins the battle, but loses the war",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "winning the battle, but losing the war",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "won the battle, but lost the war",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "won the battle, but lost the war",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "win<,,won> the battle, but lose<,,lost> the war"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To achieve a portion of a goal, but fail to achieve the entire goal."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "portion",
          "portion#English"
        ],
        [
          "fail",
          "fail#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To achieve a portion of a goal, but fail to achieve the entire goal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-win the battle, but lose the war.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/52/En-au-win_the_battle%2C_but_lose_the_war.ogg/En-au-win_the_battle%2C_but_lose_the_war.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/En-au-win_the_battle%2C_but_lose_the_war.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "achieve a portion of a goal",
      "word": "voittaa taistelu, mutta hävitä koko sota"
    }
  ],
  "word": "win the battle, but lose the war"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (bcd5c38 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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