折戟沉沙 — Chinese idiom
折戟沉沙
zhé jǐ chén shā
Meaning
- lit. broken halberds embedded in the sand
- fig. reminder of a fierce battle; remnants of a disastrous defeat
Character by character
- 折zhéto break, to snap; to fold, to bend; to bow; humbl
- 戟jǐa double-bladed axe
- 沉chénto sink, to submerge; profound, deep
- 沙shāsand, gravel, pebbles; granulated
Idioms sharing a character
- 七折八扣 qī zhé bā kòu
- 折节读书 zhé jié dú shū
- 朱云折槛 zhū yún zhé jiàn
- 百折不挠 bǎi zhé bù náo
- 盘旋曲折 pán xuán qū zhé
- 蠹众木折 dù zhòng mù zhé
- 迂回曲折 yū huí qū zhé
- 刀枪剑戟 dāo qiāng jiàn jǐ
- 昏昏沉沉 hūn hūn chén chén
- 沉湎酒色 chén miǎn jiǔ sè
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.