失街亭

shījiētíng ㄕ ㄐㄧㄝ ㄊㄧㄥˊ

    • to suffer a loss through misjudging the situation or neglecting duty

Character by character

Saying俗语俗語

Idiom惯用语 · Widely known

Literally
lose Jieting
Meaning
To suffer a loss through misjudging the situation or neglecting duty. From Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which Ma Su rigidly followed the book and lost the strategic post Jieting.

Sources