Crossword clues for pyrrhic
pyrrhic
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pyrrhic \Pyr"rhic\, n.
[Gr. ?: cf. F. pyrrhique, fem.] An ancient Greek martial dance, to the accompaniment of the flute, its time being very quick.
[L. pyrrhichius (sc. pes), Gr. ? (sc. ?): cf. F. pyrrhique, masc.] (Pros.) A foot consisting of two short syllables.
Pyrrhic \Pyr"rhic\, a. [L. pyrrhichius, Gr. ? belonging to the ? (sc. ?) a kind of war dance.]
Of or pertaining to an ancient Greek martial dance. `` ye have the pyrrhic dance as yet.''
--Byron.-
(Pros.) Of or pertaining to a pyrrhic, or to pyrrhics; containing pyrrhic; as, a pyrrhic verse. Pyrrhic victory [From Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.],
a victory in which the winning side sustains very heavy losses.
any act supposedly benefitting the actor, for which the costs outweight the benefits.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1885 (usually in phrase Pyrrhic victory), from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who defeated Roman armies at Asculum, 280 B.C.E., but at such cost to his own troops that he was unable to follow up and attack Rome itself, and is said to have remarked, "one more such victory and we are lost."
"dance in armor" (1590s), also a type of metrical foot (1620s), from Latin pyrrhicha, from Greek pyrrikhe orkhesis, the war-dance of ancient Greece, traditionally named for its inventor, Pyrrikhos. The name means "reddish," from pyrros "flame-colored," from pyr "fire" (see fire (n.)). As an adjective from 1749.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context prosody English) Of or characterized by pyrrhics. 2 Relating to Pyrrhus, a Macedonian king, or some of his costly victories he had while fighting Rome. n. 1 An Ancient Greek war dance. 2 (context prosody English) A metric foot with two short or unaccented syllables.
WordNet
adj. of or relating to a war dance of ancient Greece; "pyrrhic dance movements"
of or relating to or containing a metrical foot of two unstressed syllables; "pyrrhic verses"
of or relating to or resembling Pyrrhus or his exploits (especially his sustaining staggering losses in order to defeat the Romans); "a Pyrrhic victory"
n. a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables [syn: dibrach]
an ancient Greek dance imitating the motions of warfare
Wikipedia
A pyrrhic ( pyrrichios, from πυρρίχη pyrrichē) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of two unaccented, short syllables. It is also known as a dibrach.
Pyrrhic is a metrical foot used in formal poetry.
Pyrrhic may also refer to:
- Pyrrhic victory, a victory at devastating cost
- Pyrrhic Victory (album), 2006 album by Intwine
- Pyrrhic Victories, a short story by Mathilda Malling
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Pyrrhic dance, a coming of age ritual for Korybantes warriors in Ancient Greece
- Pyrrhichios, an ancient Greek dance described by Xenophon
- Pyrrhic defeat theory, a theory in criminology
- Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC), a series of battles among the Greeks
Usage examples of "pyrrhic".
Who, had he stayed to husband her, had spun The strength he taxed unripened for his throw, In vengeful casts calamitous, On fields where palsying Pyrrhic laurels grow, The luminous the ruinous.
It added one more shade of pain to the already Pyrrhic victory, especially as he had no intention of letting Wrey know how he felt.
By the command, and after the example, of Narses, they repeated each day their military exercise on foot and on horseback, accustomed their ear to obey the sound of the trumpet, and practised the steps and evolutions of the Pyrrhic dance.
It felt to Sturgeon as though the battle in defense of the high ground to Haven's northeast was a pyrrhic victory.
The exegesis Fat labored on month after month struck me as a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one-in this case an attempt by a beleaguered mind to make sense out of the inscrutable.
The exegesis Fat labored on month after month struck me as a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one -- in this case an attempt by a beleaguered mind to make sense out of the inscrutable.
But for the British, though they now controlled Lake Champlain, it was a Pyrrhic victory: they had sustained losses far beyond what Arnolds flotilla might have been expected to inflict, and the season was too advanced for them to attempt to subdue Fort Ticonderoga and extend their supply lines into New York.
But for the British, though they now controlled Lake Champlain, it was a Pyrrhic victory: they had sustained losses far beyond what Arnold’.
He was, indeed, cheating death now, but he knew it was, at best, a Pyrrhic victory which, his father had taught him, was no victory at all.
But even if the Phinons destroyed the Earth, the Phinons were dead in the ultimate Pyrrhic victory.
And because the reproductive impulse is the oldest and least rational of all our primitive drives, the least amenable to reason, there, I suspect, is where the battle has been fought and where we may well have won the Pyrrhic victory to end all Pyrrhic victories.
Galveston had eluded pursuit and reported in, but Bangor had been lost in the strike against Orland, and that was a Pyrrhic victory at best.
The manipulation of the human desire for peace had backfired, their collective rage turning the enemy back, though at best it was a Pyrrhic victory.
But his was a Pyrrhic victory, and before his messengers had had time to reach Edinburgh with news of his triumph, his mauled and battered army had been almost extirpated at the hands of Eannruig of Macintosh and Clan Chattan, who had been marching a few days behind the Campbells and Siol Alpine.
Still she'd fought against the more terrifying of her ancestors, winning for a time a Pyrrhic victory which had lasted through childhood.