You can't win for losing

When you win something but , winning means you lose either psychologically emotionally physically financially, anyway that negatively impacts you.

You do the dishes cuz your parents told you to and ,then when you're finished they yell at you for doing it wrong even though they didn't tell you how to do it in the first place ! Man you can't win for losing

by dragonboy8586 October 15, 2019

You can't win 'em all

one cannot always be successful (often used after one has failed)

Damn, the Patriots beat the Eagles. I guess you can't win 'em all.

by Light Joker October 9, 2005

can't win for losing

A phrase meaning that things would be going great for you if they weren't going so badly.

"Well, my girlfriend dumped me, my dog died, I got fired from my job, I went to grab some fast food to make myself feel better and on the drive back I got a flat tire, and when I finally get home I realize they screwed up my order."
"Damn, you can't win for losing."

by Kraas March 5, 2008

Words don't win a horse race

This is an old New England saying, specifically originating during the heyday of Rockingham Park Racetrack in Salem, New Hampshire. You might say this when someone is all talk and no action or saying something they can't back up.

Asenath: I can cross-stitch so much better than you!
Ivory (who is a sought-after bride because of her cross-stitch skills): Words don't win a horse race.

by Herodotus Greenleaf October 12, 2020

we just didn't win

Something a sore loser would say, after a monumental and embarrassing loss.

Boehner: "We fought the good fight, we just didn't win..." *starts crying*

by dazed.konfuzed October 16, 2013

Can’t win for losing

When you voluntarily lose (to make someone feel better, to end an argument), and then the situation gets even worse. So, what you thought you would gain by losing on purpose is lost anyway.

It’s a colloquial equivalent to paving the road to hell with good intentions.

(A lot of people writing their definitions for this are trying to make logic out of the phrasing but weren’t around when this phrase was more popular, leading to incorrect definitions.)

I let my spouse win the argument to calm down the situation, and now I’m getting criticized for not sticking up for myself. I can’t win for losing!

by Jemie Weino October 8, 2022

Superpowers can't win wars against eachother

Right. Because of mutually assured destruction... UNLESS... Unless, of course, someone seized control of all the nukes at the same time (somehow)... And then whoever THAT GUY wanted to LOSE the war... Would be UNABLE TO RETALIATE. WOW! BUT I DON'T KNOW GUYS! THAT SOUNDS VAGUELY ANALOGOUS TO SOMETHING I READ ON URBAN DICTIONARY! UNABLE TO RETALIATE!? Well, then THAT GUY could just choose winners and losers completely arbitrarily, right?

Hym "Superpowers can't win wars against eachother... Unless THAT. Unless that thing I just said. Because then it wouldn't be mutual. Is THAT what Emma mean when she brought up MUTUAL? Why did she bring that up? Is it NOT THAT anymore?"

by Hym Iam July 12, 2025