无功而返 — Chinese idiom
无功而返
wú gōng ér fǎn
Traditional: 無功而返
Meaning
- to return without any achievement ; to go home with one's tail between one's legs
Character by character
- 无wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 功gōngachievement, good work; merit; service
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 返fǎnto restore, to return, to revert to
Idioms sharing a character
- 一事无成 yī shì wú chéng
- 一往无前 yī wǎng wú qián
- 一望无垠 yī wàng wú yín
- 一望无际 yī wàng wú jì
- 一无所有 yī wú suǒ yǒu
- 一无所知 yī wú suǒ zhī
- 一无是处 yī wú shì chù
- 一览无余 yī lǎn wú yú
- 不学无术 bù xué wú shù
- 了无生趣 liǎo wú shēng qù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.