孤注一掷
- Literal
- a lone stake, in one throw
- Figurative
- To stake everything on a single risky throw, often out of desperation; it suggests recklessness rather than the resolve of 破釜沉舟.
Where does 孤注一掷 come from?
It comes from the 《宋史》, from the biography of the chancellor Kou Zhun. In the early eleventh century, facing a Khitan invasion, Kou Zhun persuaded Emperor Zhenzong to go in person to the front at Chanzhou, and the campaign ended in a peace treaty. His rival Wang Qinruo later told the emperor that a gambler who has lost nearly everything bets all he has left at once, and that this is called 孤注: at Chanzhou, the emperor had been Kou Zhun's stake. From then on the emperor's favor cooled, and Kou Zhun was eventually removed from office. Today it describes risking everything on a single play.
Source (出处): 《宋史·寇准传》
How is 孤注一掷 used? Two examples
- 他把房子抵押了去炒股，想孤注一掷翻本，结果全赔了。
He mortgaged the house to play the stock market, gambled everything on winning his losses back, and lost it all.
- 他连续三年没考上，今年孤注一掷，只报了一所名校，别的都没报。
He's failed to get in three years running, and this year he's gone all in: he applied to one top university and nowhere else.
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