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三天打鱼，两天晒网

sān tiān dǎ yú , liǎng tiān shài wǎngdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. to fish for three days and sun-dry the nets for two days (proverb) / fig. not to persevere in doing sth / to do sth by fits and starts
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-67f6735b8e666b55. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

三天打魚，兩天曬網 三天打鱼，两天晒网 [san1 tian1 da3 yu2 , liang3 tian1 shai4 wang3] /lit. to fish for three days and sun-dry the nets for two days (proverb)/fig. not to persevere in doing sth/to do sth by fits and starts/

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: 三天打魚，兩天曬網

  • 三
    sān

    three / 3

    Sān

    surname San

  • 天
    tiān

    day / sky / heaven

  • 打
    dá

    (loanword) dozen / Taiwan pr. [dǎ]

    dǎ

    to hit / to strike / to fight / (in many expressions) a semantically light transitive verb used with various objects to form expressions with a wide range of meanings, e.g. 打傘|打伞[dǎ sǎn] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[dǎ diàn huà] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[dǎ zhēn] "to get an injection" / (coll.) from / since

  • 鱼
    yú

    fish (CL:條|条[tiáo],尾[wěi]) / used in the names of various aquatic animals that are not fish (including abalone 鮑魚|鲍鱼[bào yú], alligators and crocodiles 鱷魚|鳄鱼[è yú] and octopi 章魚|章鱼[zhāng yú])

    Yú

    surname Yu

  • 两
    liǎng

    two / both / some / a few / tael, unit of weight equal to 50 grams (modern) or 1⁄16 of a catty 斤[jīn] (old)

  • 天
    tiān

    day / sky / heaven

  • 晒
    shài

    (of the sun) to shine on / to bask in (the sunshine) / to dry (clothes, grain etc) in the sun / (fig.) to expose and share (one's experiences and thoughts) on the Web (loanword from "share") / (coll.) to give the cold shoulder to

  • 网
    wǎng

    net / web / network / to net / to catch with a net

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.