Pyrrhic victory

[Agnes]

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory which is only achieved with heavy losses on ones own side.
This alludes to the Battle of Ausculum (Ascoli Satriano, in Apulia). in 279 [BCE], when the Epirote King [Pyrrhus], [aiding] the Tarentines, defeated the Romans but with severe casualties of his own. After the battle, Pyrrhus is recorded to have commented: If we win another such battle against the Romans, we will be completely lost (Plutarch, Pyrrhus 21,14).
--- wikipedia

[Magaret]

Pyrrhic victory (noun): A victory that is offset by staggering losses.
This is named in honor of [Pyrrhus], [the fool] of hope, king of Hellenistic kingdom of Epirus. He had been asked in [281] BC by Tarentum in southern Italy for assistance in the fight against Rome. Pyrrhus had attempted to create a kingdom in [Sicily] and lower Italy; however his victories against Rome were so costly to his army of 25,000 men and 20 Elephants that he was forced to withdraw from Italy. It was from his quote, Another such victory and I shall be ruined that the modern use the term Pyrrhic victory is derived.

[Rihanna]

A successful attempt to [evacuate] ones bowels, but one that requires far more clean up than the average. Commonly, when time spent cleaning surpasses time spent defecating.
The opposite of a [Flawless Victory], in which no [cleanup] is required after defecating.

[Tracie Lynn]

a victory that is not worth winning because the winner has lost so much in winning it: