得不偿失 — Chinese idiom
得不偿失
dé bù cháng shī
Traditional: 得不償失
Meaning
- the gains do not make up for the losses
Character by character
- 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable, proper; r
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 偿chángto repay, to recompense; restitution
- 失shīto lose; to make a mistake, to neglect
Idioms sharing a character
- 一举两得 yī jǔ liǎng dé
- 优游自得 yōu yóu zì dé
- 动辄得咎 dòng zhé dé jiù
- 势在必得 shì zài bì dé
- 各得其所 gè dé qí suǒ
- 咎有应得 jiù yǒu yīng dé
- 哭笑不得 kū xiào bù dé
- 因祸得福 yīn huò dé fú
- 失而复得 shī ér fù dé
- 如鱼得水 rú yú dé shuǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.