If you win the battle, but lose the war, you achieve a small thing but in achieving that, lose or fail to get something which is more important. Win the Battle, Lose the War: 6 of History’s Costliest Military Victories ... 3 – Battle of Callinicum (531) Depiction of Battle of Callinicum. Focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.” ― Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War won the battle, but lost the war phrase. “12--Lose Battles, But Win The War: Grand Strategy Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. Explanation for the 'win the battle, but lose the war' phrase in the Phrases.com dictionary. There is no better example of this saying than the infamous Second Punic War. Definition and synonyms of lose the battle but win the war from the online English dictionary from Macmillan Education.. The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, took place from April 6 to April 7, 1862, and was one of the major early engagements of the American Civil War (1861-65). Pinterest. On June 17, 1775, early in the Revolutionary War, the British defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts. Definitions, usage examples and translations inside. Desaix died while leading the counter-attack, but Napoleon won his battle. You can just as easily say "Win the battle *only* to lose the war". : I think the original poster got one small but critical word wrong. What does the 'win the battle, but lose the war' phrase mean? EDIT: Original question answered: What is the meaning of the saying "to lose the battle but to win the war". Win the battle only to lose the war Smokey Stover 09/August/05 News spread of his benevolence, and his dominion over the rest of the empire was made much easier. Thus ended history’s most flagrant example of winning all the battles but losing the war – a sort of military oxymoron that often leaves armchair strategists scratching their heads. On second thought, a small but critical word could have been omitted. Epistemologically speaking, the source of all erroneous views on war lies in idealist and mechanistic tendencies…. It can also refer to gaining a small tactical advantage that corresponds to a wider disadvantage. In short, we can say that he won the battle but lost the war. Definition of won the battle, but lost the war in the Idioms Dictionary. Winning a battle but losing the war is a military mental model that refers to achieving a minor victory that ultimately results in a larger defeat, rendering the victory empty or hollow. The phrase is "Win the battle *but* lose the war", not *to* lose the war. This battle was another Pyrrhic victory for the Sassanid Empire and is noteworthy because it is one of the rare defeats suffered by legendary Byzantine general Belisarius. This is the British English definition of lose the battle but win the war.View American English definition of lose the battle but win the war.. Change your default dictionary to American English. At Marengo, Napoleon was losing the battle, until Desaix arrived with 6,000 men and said: "This battle is lost, but there is time to win another", before charging the Austrians. A Pyrrhic victory (/ ˈ p ɪr ɪ k / PIRR-ik) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.Winning a Pyrrhic victory takes a heavy toll that negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress. What does won the battle, but lost the war expression mean? He managed to win in the end, because he focused on winning the war, and not winning any specific battle.