竭泽而渔 — Chinese idiom
竭泽而渔
jié zé ér yú
Traditional: 竭澤而漁
Meaning
- lit. to drain the pond to get at the fish
- fig. to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
Character by character
- 竭jiéto exhaust; to put forth great effort
- 泽zémarsh, swamp; brilliance, grace
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 渔yúfisherman; to fish; to pursue; to sieze
Idioms sharing a character
- 再衰三竭 zài shuāi sān jié
- 殚精竭虑 dān jīng jié lǜ
- 尽心竭力 jìn xīn jié lì
- 竭尽全力 jié jìn quán lì
- 精疲力竭 jīng pí lì jié
- 声嘶力竭 shēng sī lì jié
- 一哄而散 yī hōng ér sàn
- 一扫而空 yī sǎo ér kōng
- 一拥而入 yī yōng ér rù
- 一望而知 yī wàng ér zhī
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.