打退堂鼓 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to beat the return drum
• fig. to give up
• to turn tail

Character by character

• 打dǎto attack, to beat, to hit, to strike
• 退tuìto retreat, to step back, to withdraw
• 堂tánghall, large room; government office; cousins
• 鼓gǔdrum; to beat, to strike; to rouse

Idioms sharing a character

• 一炮打响 yī pào dǎ xiǎng
• 一网打尽 yī wǎng dǎ jìn
• 倒打一耙 dào dǎ yī pá
• 包打天下 bāo dǎ tiān xià
• 乔装打扮 qiáo zhuāng dǎ bàn
• 单打独斗 dān dǎ dú dòu
• 围城打援 wéi chéng dǎ yuán
• 宽打窄用 kuān dǎ zhǎi yòng
• 打入冷宫 dǎ rù lěng gōng
• 打家劫舍 dǎ jiā jié shè

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.