一曝十寒

Chinese

		one; single; a one; single; a; (before verbs) as soon as, once; (before a noun) entire (family, etc.)	to air; to sun	ten	cold; poor; to tremble
simp. and trad. (一曝十寒)		一	曝	十	寒
Literally: “one day's sun, ten days' frost”.

Etymology

From the book Mencius.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): yīpù-shíhán

  (Zhuyin): ㄧ ㄆㄨˋ ㄕˊ ㄏㄢˊ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: yīpù-shíhán [Phonetic: yípù-shíhán]
    • Zhuyin: ㄧ ㄆㄨˋ ㄕˊ ㄏㄢˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: yipùshíhhán
    • Wade–Giles: i¹-pʻu⁴-shih²-han²
    • Yale: yī-pù-shŕ-hán
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: ipuhshyrharn
    • Palladius: ипушихань (ipušixanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ pʰu⁵¹ ʂʐ̩³⁵ xän³⁵/

Idiom

一曝十寒

1. (figurative) to work for a bit then skimp