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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

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

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 (cǎndàn jīngyíng), "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