war of attrition

English

Noun

war of attrition (plural wars of attrition)

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

2. 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