徒劳无功 — Chinese idiom
徒劳无功
tú láo wú gōng
Traditional: 徒勞無功
Meaning
- to work to no avail
Character by character
- 徒túdisciple, follower; only, merely; in vain
- 劳láoto labor, to toil; to do manual work
- 无wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 功gōngachievement, good work; merit; service
Idioms sharing a character
- 亡命之徒 wáng mìng zhī tú
- 家徒四壁 jiā tú sì bì
- 徒劳无益 tú láo wú yì
- 徒呼负负 tú hū fù fù
- 徒子徒孙 tú zǐ tú sūn
- 徒有其名 tú yǒu qí míng
- 徒有虚名 tú yǒu xū míng
- 马齿徒增 mǎ chǐ tú zēng
- 不劳而获 bù láo ér huò
- 以逸待劳 yǐ yì dài láo
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.