📖 Meaning
The war drum sounds grow faint and strength is depleted. It describes the miserable state when a war is nearing defeat, or the weakening and loss of vigor at the end of a piece of writing.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom has no single recorded origin story but stems from classical battlefield imagery. In ancient warfare, drums were beaten to rally troops and signal charges; when the drumbeats grew weak, it signaled that an army was losing momentum and its soldiers were exhausted. The phrase was later extended metaphorically to literary criticism, describing essays or speeches that start strong but falter toward the end.
💡 Example Usage
敌军已是鼓衰力尽，我军乘胜追击，一举收复失地。
The enemy army was exhausted and demoralized; our forces seized the momentum and recaptured the lost territory in one stroke.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 鼓衰力尽
- Pinyin: gǔ shuāi lì jìn
- Literal Translation: drum, weaken, strength, exhaust
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4