穷 于 应 付

qióng yú yìng fùdictionary entry

to struggle to cope (with a situation) / to be at one's wits' end

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-533c0a25c7138812. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

窮於應付穷于应付 [qiong2 yu2 ying4 fu4] /to struggle to cope (with a situation)/to be at one's wits' end/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 窮於應付

穷
qióng
poor / destitute / to use up / to exhaust / thoroughly / extremely / (coll.) persistently and pointlessly
于
yú
to go / to take / sentence-final interrogative particle / (of time or place) in / at / on / (indicating any indirect relation) to / toward / vis-à-vis / with regard to / for / (indicating a source) from / out of / (used in comparison) than / (used in the passive voice) by
Yú
surname Yu
应
yīng
to agree (to do sth) / should / ought to / must / (legal) shall
yìng
to answer / to respond / to comply with / to deal or cope with
Yīng
surname Ying / Taiwan pr. [Yìng]
付
fù
to pay / to hand over to / classifier for pairs or sets of things
Fù
surname Fu

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.