劳民伤财 / 勞民傷財

láo​mín​shāng​cái

waste of manpower and resources

To tire out the people and waste money; refers to a project or policy that is wasteful and provides little benefit.

劳 (literal) → 劳/勞 · láo · to work 民 (literal) → 民 · mín · the people 伤 (literal) → 伤/傷 · shāng · to injure 财 (literal) → 财/財 · cái · wealth

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM