Chinese word dictionary

穷困潦倒

qióng kùn liáo dǎo · (idiom) to live in poverty and despair; down and out; destitute and without hope

Practice word

Word information

Simplified穷困潦倒

Traditional窮困潦倒

Pinyinqióng kùn liáo dǎo

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

穷qióng

poor, destitute; to exhaust

困kùn

to surround; to besiege; surrounded, in distress; poor; tired, sleepy

潦lǎo

to flood; puddle; dejected, careless

倒dào

to collapse, to fall over; to lie down

How to learn 穷困潦倒

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

倒dào

to invert; to place upside down or frontside back; to pour out; to tip out; to dump; inverted; upside down; reversed; to go backward; contrary to what one might expect; but; yet

困kùn

sleepy; tired; to trap; to surround; hard-pressed; stranded; destitute

困难kùnnan

difficult; challenging; straitened circumstances; difficult situation

穷qióng

poor; destitute; to use up; to exhaust; thoroughly; extremely; (coll.) persistently and pointlessly

倒闭dǎobì

to go bankrupt; to close down

倒车dǎochē

to change buses, trains etc