proxy war

1. 1.

   a war instigated by a major power that does not itself participate

   Broaderwar

Questions about proxy war

What does proxy war mean?

proxy war means "a war instigated by a major power that does not itself participate".

Is proxy war a common word?

proxy war is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.