残缺不全

殘缺不全
cánquē-bùquán
idiom #42,893

Meanings

  1. 1 broken and incomplete
  2. 2 fragmentary; missing pieces; in disrepair

Examples

Zhè běn gǔshū yǐjīng cánquē-bùquán, shǎo le hǎojǐ yè.
This ancient book is already incomplete, missing several pages.
Tā duì nà duàn lìshǐ de jìyì cánquē-bùquán.
His memory of that period of history is fragmentary.

Tips

usage
Used for physical objects (books, artifacts, ruins) and abstract things (memories, records, evidence). The two halves 残缺 and 不全 reinforce each other - both mean 'lacking parts.'
memory
Each character pulls in the same direction: (damaged), (missing), 不全 (not whole). The redundancy is the point - total emphasis on incompleteness.

Stroke Order

cán
quē
quán