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惨淡

慘淡
cǎndàn
adjective #30,616

Meanings

  1. 1 dismal
  2. 2 gloomy
  3. 3 bleak
  4. 4 (of business) poor, struggling
  5. 5 (of effort) painstaking, laborious

Examples

HSK 5
天空一片惨淡。
Tiānkōng yī piàn cǎndàn.
The sky was a stretch of bleak grey.
HSK 7-9
今年的票房非常惨淡。
Jīnnián de piàofáng fēicháng cǎndàn.
This year's box office was dismal.
HSK 7-9
经过惨淡经营，公司终于扭亏为盈。
Jīngguò cǎndàn-jīngyíng, gōngsī zhōngyú niǔkuī-wéiyíng.
After painstaking effort, the company finally turned losses into profit.

Tips

usage
Three flavors. (1) Visual: gloomy, washed-out, pale (惨淡的天空, 惨淡的月光). (2) Business/career: poor, struggling (生意惨淡, 票房惨淡). (3) Effort: painstaking - only in the chengyu 惨淡经营, "to run [a business] through painstaking effort," originally from Du Fu's poem describing artistic creation.
history
惨淡经营 comes from Du Fu's poem 《丹青引赠曹将军霸》 - 「诏谓将军拂绢素，意匠惨澹经营中」 - describing painter Cao Ba carefully composing a portrait. Originally about artistic concentration; now mainly about hard-won business survival.

Stroke Order

惨 cǎn
淡 dàn