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/ˈpɪɹ.ɪk/
Pyrrhic
adjective
Describing a victory so costly in its achievement that it amounts to a defeat, named for the ancient king Pyrrhus whose triumphs against Rome left his armies so devastated they could not continue the war. To win pyrrhically is to discover that the price of conquest has consumed the very spoils one sought to claim.
“After months of fighting to reclaim her husband's love, she won him back only to realize that the Pyrrhic victory had cost her the ability to trust him, leaving her with a shell of a marriage and a heart too scarred to inhabit it.”
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“A few years ago, we pushed code to production. Everyone thought we would be in and out. We were not. A few bugs in sanity testing turned a 20 minute job into a 3 hour one. When we finally called it, our team lead said "pyrrhic victory." I had to look it up. It stayed with me because it explained that night so perfectly. A word I did not know I needed until I heard it.”
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