业荒于嬉 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to be distracted from one's work and fail to achieve results

Character by character

• 业yèbusiness, profession; to study, to work
• 荒huāngwasteland, desert; uncultivated
• 于yúat, in, on; to, from; alas!
• 嬉xīto enjoy; to play, to amuse oneself

Idioms sharing a character

• 兢兢业业 jīng jīng yè yè
• 子承父业 zǐ chéng fù yè
• 安家立业 ān jiā lì yè
• 安居乐业 ān jū lè yè
• 家大业大 jiā dà yè dà
• 成家立业 chéng jiā lì yè
• 敬业乐群 jìng yè lè qún
• 业精于勤 yè jīng yú qín
• 穷家薄业 qióng jiā bó yè
• 重操旧业 chóng cāo jiù yè

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.