war of attrition

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, →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, 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.

• Pyrrhic victory

• “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