苟延残喘 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to struggle on whilst at death's door

Character by character

• 苟gǒucareless, frivolous, illicit; but, if only
• 延yánto defer, to delay, to postpone; to extend, to pro
• 残cánto injure, to ruin, to spoil; cruel, oppressive, s
• 喘chuǎnto pant, to gasp, to breathe heavily

Idioms sharing a character

• 一笔不苟 yī bǐ bù gǒu
• 一丝不苟 yī sī bù gǒu
• 不敢苟同 bù gǎn gǒu tóng
• 苟且偷安 gǒu qiě tōu ān
• 苟且偷生 gǒu qiě tōu shēng
• 蝇营狗苟 yíng yíng gǒu gǒu
• 延年益寿 yán nián yì shòu
• 延颈企踵 yán jǐng qǐ zhǒng
• 抱残守缺 bào cán shǒu quē
• 收残缀轶 shōu cán zhuì yì

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