两败俱伤
liǎng bài jù shāng
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 兩敗俱傷
Both sides in a fight or rivalry come out badly hurt and nobody gains. Used to describe, or to warn against, conflicts, price wars and lawsuits that damage everyone involved.
Hai bên tranh đấu rồi cùng bị tổn hại, không bên nào được lợi. Dùng để tả hoặc để cảnh báo về những cuộc đối đầu, kiện tụng, cạnh tranh mà rốt cuộc ai cũng thiệt.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): etymology of “lưỡng bại câu thương” = 兩敗俱傷 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “lưỡng bại câu thương” (luong-bai-cau-thuong). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “两败俱伤” mean?
Both sides in a fight or rivalry come out badly hurt and nobody gains. Used to describe, or to warn against, conflicts, price wars and lawsuits that damage everyone involved. Literally: both sides beaten, both wounded
Is “两败俱伤” formal or informal?
两败俱伤 is generally neutral.