Idiom
win the battle, but lose the war
Meaning
To achieve a portion of a goal, but fail to achieve the entire goal.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“You won the battle, but lost the war.”
“He won the battle by getting a small raise, but lost the war when the company fired his entire department.”
“By focusing solely on short-term profits, the manager won the battle for quarterly growth but lost the war for long-term market stability.”
Examples
simple
“You won the battle, but lost the war.”
contextual
“He won the battle by getting a small raise, but lost the war when the company fired his entire department.”
complex
“By focusing solely on short-term profits, the manager won the battle for quarterly growth but lost the war for long-term market stability.”
Key words
Related idioms
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