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Home / Idiom / 半途而废

to give up halfway (idiom); leave sth unfinished

半途而废
bàn tú ér fèi
IdiomHSK 7-9
Chain
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Examples2 available
Leaving something unfinished is the worst thing you can do.
半途而废是你所能做的最糟糕的事情。
You shouldn't do things by halves.
你做事不能半途而废。
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
lit. to ruin the enterprise for the sake of one basketful · to fail through lack of a final effort · to spoil the ship for a ha'penny worth of tar (idiom)功亏一篑gōng kuī yī kuìto start but not finish (idiom); to fail to carry things through · lack of sticking power · short attention span有始无终yǒu shǐ wú zhōng(lit.) to stop after taking just a sip (idiom); (fig.) to gain only a superficial knowledge of sth and then stop浅尝辄止qiǎn cháng zhé zhǐto cut short · to break off · to discontinue · to interrupt中断zhōng duànlit. to beat the return drum (idiom) · fig. to give up · to turn tail打退堂鼓dǎ tuì táng gǔ
Antonyms
(idiom) to persevere unremittingly; to keep going until the end坚持不懈jiān chí bù xièto pursue unremittingly (idiom); to persevere持之以恒chí zhī yǐ héngto chip away at a task and not abandon it (idiom); to chisel away at sth · to persevere · unflagging efforts锲而不舍qiè ér bù shě