Brewer's: Pyrrhic Victory

(A). A ruinous victory. Pyrrhus, after his victory over the Romans, near the river Siris, said to those sent to congratulate him, “One more such victory and Pyrrhus is undone.”

“The railway companies see that in fighting their customers they gain but a very Pyrrhic sort of victory.” —Newspaper article, Feb. 13th, 1893.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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