每况愈下

每況愈下

měikuàngyùxià

idiom #21,605

Meanings

1 to go from bad to worse
2 to steadily deteriorate
3 getting worse all the time

Characters

situation; circumstances

increasingly; more and more

down; below; worse

Examples

他的健康状况每况愈下，令家人担忧。

Tā de jiànkāng zhuàngkuàng měikuàng yùxià, lìng jiārén dānyōu.

His health condition has been deteriorating steadily, worrying his family.

公司的业绩每况愈下，急需改革。

Gōngsī de yèjì měikuàng yùxià, jí xū gǎigé.

The company's performance keeps getting worse and is in urgent need of reform.

Tips

history

The original form is 每下愈况 (from Zhuangzi 庄子), meaning the further down you look, the clearer things become. By the Song dynasty the order flipped to 每况愈下 with the opposite meaning: 'each situation worse than the last'. A rare case of a phrase inverting its own meaning.

Stroke Order

每 měi

况 kuàng

愈 yù

下 xià