得来全不费功夫

得來全不費功夫

dé lái quán bù fèi gōngfu

quotation

Meanings

1 obtaining it cost no effort at all
2 unexpectedly easy acquisition after long struggle
3 lit. get-come — entirely — not — expend — effort

Characters

(directional complement) come

to expend, cost

(forms 功夫 = effort)

Examples

踏破铁鞋无觅处，得来全不费功夫。

Tàpòtiěxiéwúmìchù, déláiquánbùfèigōngfu.

I wore out iron shoes searching and found nothing — and in the end it took no effort at all.

资料他苦找一年，今天一开会议竟得来全不费功夫。

Zīliào tā kǔ zhǎo yī nián, jīntiān yī kāihuì yì jìng déláiquánbùfèigōngfu.

He hunted for the data bitterly for a year; today at a meeting it dropped into his lap with no effort at all.

Tips

history

From the Ming novel 《水浒传》 chapter 36 and circulated widely in Ming-Qing fiction: 踏破铁鞋无觅处，得来全不费功夫 — 'I wore out iron shoes with no place to find it; when it came, it took no effort at all.' A household couplet in Chinese — the perfect phrase for the experience of searching everywhere and then stumbling onto the thing by accident.

usage

Always cited with its setup 踏破铁鞋无觅处. 功夫 here = 'effort / labor', not 'kung fu (martial art)' — the two senses share the same written form.

Stroke Order

得 de

来 lái

全 quán

不 bù

费 fèi

功 gōng

夫 fū