欲罢不能 — Chinese idiom
欲罢不能
yù bà bù néng
Traditional: 欲罷不能
Meaning
- want to stop but can't
- to be unable to stop oneself
- to feel an urge to continue
Character by character
- 欲yùdesire, want, longing, intent
- 罢bàto cease, to finish, to stop, to quit
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 能néngcan, may; capable, full of energy
Idioms sharing a character
- 七情六欲 qī qíng liù yù
- 伤心欲绝 shāng xīn yù jué
- 利欲熏心 lì yù xūn xīn
- 呼之欲出 hū zhī yù chū
- 喷薄欲出 pēn bó yù chū
- 垂涎欲滴 chuí xián yù dī
- 悲痛欲绝 bēi tòng yù jué
- 欲壑难填 yù hè nán tián
- 我醉欲眠 wǒ zuì yù mián
- 昏昏欲睡 hūn hūn yù shuì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.