📖 Meaning
To run in the opposite direction. It describes people or actions whose directions and goals are completely contrary to each other. The idiom conveys that two parties are moving apart rather than converging on a shared purpose.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from a postface written by the Tang dynasty scholar Liu Zongyuan for a collected literary work. He observed that later writers each pursued only one narrow corner of learning, running away from one another on the same road, so that the distance between them only grew wider. Over time the expression came to describe any pursuit whose aim runs directly counter to an intended goal.
💡 Example Usage
他的做法与团队目标背道而驰，最终导致项目失败。
His approach ran counter to the team's goals and ultimately caused the project to fail.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 背道而驰
- Pinyin: bèi dào ér chí
- Literal Translation: back, road, and, gallop
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4