因噎废食
- Literal
- to stop eating because of one choking fit
- Figurative
- To give up something necessary or useful because of one isolated mishap; being so cautious after a single scare that you end up losing what was worth keeping.
Where does 因噎废食 come from?
The image comes from an argument in the 《吕氏春秋》, in the 荡兵 chapter, which defends the view that weapons cannot sensibly be abolished just because wars cause harm. The argument is a comparison: if a man has choked to death, wanting to ban eating for everyone on that account is absurd, since the cure would be worse and sillier than the disease. The four-syllable phrase settled out of that. Today it criticizes anyone who, burned by one isolated accident, gives up something they need instead of fixing what actually went wrong.
Source (出处): 《吕氏春秋·荡兵》
How is 因噎废食 used? Two examples
- 出过一次事故就不让孩子游泳，这不是因噎废食吗？
Banning the kids from swimming because of one accident? That's giving up eating over one choking fit.
- 不能因为一次失败就放弃创业，那是因噎废食。
You can't give up on starting a business over one failure; that's swearing off food because you choked once.
In Wanyu, all 400 chengyu have audio on every sentence, and you can save them to your decks and review them with spaced repetition. Free.
