Word.ws English Dictionary

the terrorists will have won

the terrorists will have won phrase: phrase used to indicate that if a specified activity is not continued or carried out, those who seek to disrupt normal activities through terror will have succeeded, which is an unacceptable result.

Phrase

the terrorists will have won

  1. (idiomatic) Phrase used to indicate that if a specified activity is not continued or carried out, those who seek to disrupt normal activities through terror will have succeeded, which is an unacceptable result.
    • If you throttle the free press, the terrorists will have won.1979, Edwin Nobles Lowe with Harry D. Shargel, Legal and other aspects of terrorism, page 222
    • If governments overact and become oppressive, the terrorists will have won, for their theory is that repression will eventually lead to revolution.1989, Susheela Bhan, Terrorism: an Annotated Bibliography, page 116

Questions about the terrorists will have won

What does the terrorists will have won mean?
The terrorists will have won means phrase used to indicate that if a specified activity is not continued or carried out, those who seek to disrupt normal activities through terror will have succeeded, which is an unacceptable result.
What part of speech is the terrorists will have won?
The terrorists will have won is a phrase.

Words near the terrorists will have won in the dictionary

  1. the sun sets on something
  2. the switch in time that saved nine
  3. the tackies hit the tar
  4. the tail wags the dog
  5. the tar out of
  6. the terrorists will have won
  7. the thick plottens
  8. the thing
  9. the thing is
  10. the thing of it
  11. the Three Weeks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the terrorists will have won (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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