war of nerves
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Warfare characterized by psychological manipulation, involving tactics intended to demoralize, frighten, and unnerve opponents in order to prompt surrender.
noun
A situation in which opposed parties refrain from direct conflict but maintain a tense, contentious relationship in which each uses annoyances or intimidating psychological tactics to attempt to dishearten and unnerve the other.
Example Sentences
- "Our brave Ottoman soldiers are not easily frightened by noise, owing to their splendid nerves—and this is a war of nerves, a war in which strong nerves mean victory."
- "In the future, war will not merely be one of men and machines, it will be a war of wills and a war of nerves."
- "A united steel industry appeared to have emerged the victor today in a war of nerves to raise prices on some of its products in the face of White House pressure to hold the price line."
- "14 of America's best chess players are wielding kings, queens and their chessboard servants in a silent but brutal war. . . . "It's a mental war, it's a war of nerves, of logic, or reasoning, of being a good fighter," said Walter Browne."
- ""We assume that a dangerous brinkmanship, a war of nerves, is under way, but it will not grow into a hot war," the official told Tass."