功败垂成 — Chinese idiom
功败垂成
gōng bài chuí chéng
Traditional: 功敗垂成
Meaning
- to fail within sight of success ; last-minute failure
- to fall at the last hurdle
- snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
Character by character
- 功gōngachievement, good work; merit; service
- 败bàifailure; to decline, to fail, to suffer defeat
- 垂chuíto hang, to dangle; to hand down, to bequeath; alm
- 成chéngto accomplish; to become; to complete, to finish;
Idioms sharing a character
- 事倍功半 shì bèi gōng bàn
- 事半功倍 shì bàn gōng bèi
- 前功尽弃 qián gōng jìn qì
- 功不可没 gōng bù kě mò
- 功名利禄 gōng míng lì lù
- 功完行满 gōng wán xíng mǎn
- 功德圆满 gōng dé yuán mǎn
- 功德无量 gōng dé wú liàng
- 功成不居 gōng chéng bù jū
- 功成名就 gōng chéng míng jiù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.