破釜沉舟 — Chinese idiom
破釜沉舟
pò fǔ chén zhōu
Meaning
- lit. to break the cauldrons and sink the boats ; fig. to cut off one's means of retreat
- to burn one's boats
Character by character
- 破pòto break, to rout; to ruin, to destroy
- 釜fǔcauldron, kettle, pot
- 沉chénto sink, to submerge; profound, deep
- 舟zhōuboat, ship
Idioms sharing a character
- 一语道破 yī yǔ dào pò
- 乘风破浪 chéng fēng pò làng
- 势如破竹 shì rú pò zhú
- 国破家亡 guó pò jiā wáng
- 大破大立 dà pò dà lì
- 家破人亡 jiā pò rén wáng
- 支离破碎 zhī lí pò suì
- 乐昌破镜 Lè chāng pò jìng
- 牢不可破 láo bù kě pò
- 看破红尘 kàn pò hóng chén
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.