the terrorists will have won

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

society has been significantly altered by fear or restrictions

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Xã hội đã thay đổi đáng kể bởi nỗi sợ hãi hoặc hạn chế

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

If we cancel the event, the terrorists will have won

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “the terrorists will have won” mean?

society has been significantly altered by fear or restrictions

Is “the terrorists will have won” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.