铩羽而归 — Chinese idiom
铩羽而归
shā yǔ ér guī
Traditional: 鎩羽而歸
Meaning
- to return in low spirits following a defeat or failure to achieve one's ambitions
Character by character
- 铩shāspear; to injure
- 羽yǔfeather, plume; wings
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 归guīto return, to go back; to return to, to revert
Idioms sharing a character
- 吉光片羽 jí guāng piàn yǔ
- 爱惜羽毛 ài xī yǔ máo
- 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
- 一概而论 yī gài ér lùn
- 一炮而红 yī pào ér hóng
- 一蹴而就 yī cù ér jiù
- 一饮而尽 yī yǐn ér jìn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.