From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishPyrrhic victoryPyr‧rhic vic‧to‧ry /ˌpɪrɪk ˈvɪktəri/ noun [countable] SUFFERWINa victory in which the person who wins suffers so much that the victory was hardly worth winning
Examples from the Corpus
Pyrrhic victory• It may prove to be a Pyrrhic victory.• The triumph of postmodernism, at least in the west, has been a Pyrrhic victory.• This was indeed a Pyrrhic victory, because West Indies cricket was assuredly the loser.• I raised a stink about it and got my seat back, but it was a Pyrrhic victory.• My only regret is that he didn't turn up at court to watch his Pyrrhic victory.Origin Pyrrhic victory (1800-1900) Pyrrhus (312?-272BC), Greek king whose army defeated the Romans but had very many killed and wounded 