一曝十寒
yī​pù​shí​hán

to work by fits and starts

一曝十寒 yī​pù​shí​hán
to work by fits and starts
(idiom) to lack sticking power or persistence; to work hard for a day and then neglect the task for many more. This phrase originally comes from the philosopher 孟子 mèng​zǐ, referring to a plant that cannot grow if it is given one day of sun followed by ten days of frost.

Frequency
Written text
0.030 per million

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Sources
Frequency data
BCC Corpus (BLCU)