此起彼伏

cǐqǐ-bǐfú
idiom HSK 7-9 #47,728

Meanings

  1. 1 one after another; rising and falling in succession
  2. 2 one subsides as another rises

Characters

This one rises (), that one falls () — a continuous, wave-like pattern of things happening in succession.

Examples

Zhǎngshēng cǐqǐbǐfú.
Applause rose and fell in waves.
Shānjiān de niǎo jiàoshēng cǐqǐbǐfú.
Birdsong echoed back and forth among the mountains.

Tips

usage
此起彼伏 vividly describes sounds (applause, waves, gunfire), events (protests, conflicts), or any phenomena that overlap in a continuous wave pattern. It's a very common idiom in written Chinese, especially in news and literature.

Stroke Order