war of attrition

English

Noun

war of attrition (plural wars of attrition)

1. (military) A prolonged war in which the warring sides try to defeat their opponents by wearing them out.

   Synonym: attrition warfare

   • 2021, Gerald Casale, Josh Freese, Josh Hager, Steve Bartek (lyrics and music), “I'm Gonna Pay U Back”, in I'm Gonna Pay U Back, performed by DEVO's Gerald V. Casale:

     A bullet for your war of attrition
     And your exploitation of the human condition

   • 2021 December 6, Michael Schwirtz, “On Ukrainian Front, Grinding War and Weary Anticipation of Invasion”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     So far, soldiers on the front lines said they had seen little evidence of escalation beyond this largely slow-moving war of attrition.

   • 2023 October 6, HarryBlank, “Executive Dysfunction”, in SCP Foundation‎^[2], archived from the original on 26 May 2024:

     The Site Director was expected to initiate DISCIDIUM Protocol should the situation become untenable; so far as remote observation of the remains of Ipperwash Park above can show, this was not done. Transmissions are occasionally intercepted from the Site, and after memetic 'washing' by RAISA have been determined to originate from uncompromised personnel conducting a war of attrition against the above-mentioned entities. It is from their reports that the majority of this information, save for that regarding SCP-001-A, has been derived. As an understanding of each entity may aid in the defeat of SCP-001-A, no action has been taken to remove Site-43 from operational effectiveness.

2. (figuratively) A situation in which opponents try to overcome each other by wearing them out.

Translations

prolonged exhausting war

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: حَرْب اِسْتِنْزاف f (ḥarb istinzāf)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: вайна́ на знясі́ленне f (vajná na znjasíljennje)
• Bulgarian: война́ на изтоще́ние f (vojná na iztošténie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 消耗戰／消耗战 (zh) (xiāohàozhàn), 摩擦戰／摩擦战 (zh) (mócāzhàn)

• Crimean Tatar: please add this translation if you can
• Czech: opotřebovávací válka f
• Danish: udmattelseskrig c
• Dutch: uitputtingsoorlog (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: kurnamissõda
• Finnish: näännytyssota (fi), uuvutussota, kulutussota
• French: guerre d’usure (fr) f, guerre d’attrition (fr) f
• German: Zermürbungskrieg m, Abnutzungskrieg m
• Hebrew: מִלְחֶמֶת הַתָּשָׁה \ מלחמת התשה (he) f (milkhémet hatashá)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: 消耗戦 (しょうもうせん, shōmōsen)
• Korean: 소모전(消耗戰) (ko) (somojeon)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: војна на трошење f (vojna na trošenje)
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: utmattelseskrig m

• Persian: جنگ فرسایشی (jang-e farsâyeši)
• Polish: wojna na wyczerpanie f
• Portuguese: guerra de desgaste f
• Romanian: război de uzură n
• Russian: война́ на истоще́ние f (vojná na istoščénije)
• Slovak: opotrebovávacia vojna f
• Spanish: guerra de desgaste f
• Swahili: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: utnötningskrig (sv) n, utmattningskrig (sv) n
• Turkish: yıpratma savaşı
• Ukrainian: війна́ на ви́снаження f (vijná na výsnažennja)
• Vietnamese: chiến tranh tiêu hao
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

See also

• Pyrrhic victory

Further reading

• “war of attrition”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “war of attrition”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• attrition warfare on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• War of Attrition on Wikipedia.Wikipedia