殚 (dān): to exhaust

Meanings

1 to exhaust
2 to use up entirely

Characters

殚

dān

to exhaust; to use up entirely

Examples

为了完成这个项目，他殚精竭虑。

Wèile wánchéng zhège xiàngmù, tā dānjīngjiélǜ.

To complete this project he exhausted all his mental energy.

学者为这本书殚尽了毕生精力。

Xuézhě wèi zhè běn shū dān jìn le bìshēng jīnglì.

The scholar exhausted his lifelong energy on this book.

Tips

usage

殚 is literary and almost always appears in 殚精竭虑 ('to rack one's brains and exhaust all effort'), describing total devotion of mental energy to a task.

Components

radical

歹 dǎi

bad; bare bone; death

歹 is the 'death/bare-bone' radical. Here it suggests something worn down to nothing — energy spent until totally drained.

phonetic

单 dān

single; alone

单 ('single') gives the exact sound dān. A memory hook: spend until you are down to a 'single' last bit, then it is 殚 — exhausted.

Stroke Order

殚 dān

Related Words

殚精竭虑 dānjīng-jiélǜ #50,368

to exhaust one's mind and thought (idiom) / to rack one's brains; to leave no stone unturned

尽 jìn HSK 6 #1,005

to use up; to exhaust / to end; to finish / to the utmost / all; entirely

都 dōu HSK 1 #28

all / both / entirely / already

完全 wánquán HSK 2 #295

completely / entirely

统统 tǒngtǒng HSK 7-9 #7,248

all / entirely / completely

得来全不费功夫 dé lái quán bù fèi gōngfu

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

俱 jù #7,609

all; both; entirely

竭尽 jiéjìn #8,302

to exhaust; to use up completely / to spare no effort

将信将疑 jiāngxìn-jiāngyí

half-believing, half-doubting / to be skeptical but not entirely dismissive

劳民伤财 láomín-shāngcái

to waste manpower and money / to exhaust the people and drain resources / a pointless drain on labor and funds