折戟沉沙 — Chinese idiom

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.