望洋兴叹 — Chinese idiom
望洋兴叹
wàng yáng xīng tàn
Traditional: 望洋興嘆
Meaning
- (lit.) to gaze at the ocean and lament one's inadequacy
- (fig.) to feel powerless and incompetent (to perform a task)
Character by character
- 望wàngto expect, to hope, to look forward to
- 洋yángsea, ocean; western, foreign
- 兴xīngto thrive, to prosper, to flourish
- 叹tànto sigh, to admire
Idioms sharing a character
- 一望无垠 yī wàng wú yín
- 一望无际 yī wàng wú jì
- 一望而知 yī wàng ér zhī
- 不孚众望 bù fú zhòng wàng
- 不负众望 bù fù zhòng wàng
- 功高望重 gōng gāo wàng zhòng
- 名门望族 míng mén wàng zú
- 喜出望外 xǐ chū wàng wài
- 大喜过望 dà xǐ guò wàng
- 巴高望上 bā gāo wàng shàng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.