为德不终 — Chinese idiom
为德不终
wéi dé bù zhōng
Traditional: 為德不終
Meaning
- to start on virtue but give up ; to fail to carry things through
- lack of sticking power
- short attention span
Character by character
- 为wéito do, to act; to handle, to govern; to be
- 德déethics, morality; compassion, kindness
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 终zhōngend; finally, in the end
Idioms sharing a character
- 一之为甚 yī zhī wéi shèn
- 一分为二 yī fēn wéi èr
- 一言为定 yī yán wéi dìng
- 一言为重 yī yán wéi zhòng
- 不以为然 bù yǐ wéi rán
- 不足为奇 bù zú wéi qí
- 不足为怪 bù zú wéi guài
- 事在人为 shì zài rén wéi
- 互为因果 hù wéi yīn guǒ
- 以史为鉴 yǐ shǐ wéi jiàn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.