白费蜡 / 白費蠟

bái​fèi​là

in vain

To exert effort without getting any results; specifically a colloquial abbreviation of the folk riddle [[瞎子点灯|瞎子點燈|xia1 zi5 dian3 deng1]]—bái fèi là, meaning like a blind person lighting a candle, the effort is wasted.

白费 (literal) → 白费/白費 · bái​fèi · to waste 蜡 (literal) → 蜡/蠟 · là · candle

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

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM