臥薪嘗膽
wò​xīn​cháng​dǎn

to undergo hardships to achieve an ambition

  • created sense approved 卧薪尝胆/臥薪嘗膽 · wò​xīn​cháng​dǎn · to undergo hardships to achieve an ambition — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    卧薪尝胆 / 臥薪嘗膽

    wò​xīn​cháng​dǎn

    to undergo hardships to achieve an ambition

    (idiom) to sleep on brushwood and taste gall; to endure hardships and persevere with resolve in order to achieve a goal or seek revenge. Historically refers to King [[勾践|勾踐|gou1 jian4]] of the State of Yue after his defeat by the State of Wu.

    卧 (literal) → 卧/臥 · wò · to lie down 薪 (literal) → 薪 · xīn · firewood 尝 (literal) → 尝/嘗 · cháng · to taste 胆 (literal) → 胆/膽 · dǎn · gallbladder

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

    created sense