功亏一篑 Save Create a free account to save words Traditional (Taiwan): 功虧一簣 gōngkuīyīkuì ㄍㄨㄥ ㄎㄨㄟ ㄧ ㄎㄨㄟˋ 男 女 lit. to ruin the enterprise for the sake of one basketful to fail through lack of a final effort to spoil the ship for a ha'penny worth of tar (idiom) Character by character 功(gōng)meritorious deed or service 亏(kuī)lose 一(yī)one 篑(kuì)basket for carrying soil Sign up for a free account to save words and review them A Chinese word or character, or English Search Sources CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0 pinyinjs, Apache-2.0