losing battle, a

Also, a losing game. A failing effort or activity. For example, He's fighting a losing battle against putting on weight, or We think his candidacy is a losing game. These expressions, alluding to actual unsuccessful battles or games, have been used figuratively since the early 1600s. Also see lost cause.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ida	IE-də (English), EE-dah (German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Italian)	English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Slovene
Zvonko	-	Croatian
BoŻYdar	baw-ZHI-dahr	Polish
Shankar	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Nepali
Combs	[ku:mz]
Doireann	-	Irish, Irish Mythology