劳民伤财 — Chinese idiom
劳民伤财
láo mín shāng cái
Traditional: 勞民傷財
Meaning
- to waste both manpower and resources
Character by character
- 劳láoto labor, to toil; to do manual work
- 民míncitizens, subjects; a nation's people
- 伤shāngto injure, to harm; wound, injury; to fall ill
- 财cáiriches, wealth, valuables
Idioms sharing a character
- 不劳而获 bù láo ér huò
- 以逸待劳 yǐ yì dài láo
- 任劳任怨 rèn láo rèn yuàn
- 刻苦耐劳 kè kǔ nài láo
- 劳师动众 láo shī dòng zhòng
- 劳燕分飞 láo yàn fēn fēi
- 劳逸结合 láo yì jié hé
- 吃苦耐劳 chī kǔ nài láo
- 好逸恶劳 hào yì wù láo
- 徒劳无功 tú láo wú gōng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.