起早贪黑

起早貪黑
qǐzǎo-tānhēi
idiom #56,568

Meanings

  1. 1 to get up early and stay up late
  2. 2 to work from dawn till dusk
  3. 3 industrious and tirelessly hardworking

Examples

HSK 3
Tā qǐzǎotānhēi de gōngzuò, zhōngyú kāi le zìjǐ de diàn.
He worked early mornings and late nights, and finally opened his own shop.
HSK 4
Fùmǔ qǐzǎotānhēi, jiùshì wèile háizi néng guòshàng hǎorìzi.
The parents work from dawn till dusk just so their child can live a better life.

Tips

memory
贪 normally means 'to covet' - here it's stretched into 'to greedily cling to'. So the phrase is literally 'rise early, cling to the dark' (i.e. work into the night). The odd use of 贪 is what makes it memorable.

Stroke Order

起 qǐ
早 zǎo
贪 tān
黑 hēi