Japanese

しかついんちん
Meaning: drinking poison to quench thirst; a desperate measure that leads to disaster
Part of Speech: Noun, Four-character idiom

Listen to pronunciation

Handwriting

止
渇
飲
鴆

Example

Borrowing from loan sharks to pay off debt is the height of drinking poison to quench thirst.

Usage Notes

Warns against taking a temporary, short-sighted fix for a problem that will only make things much worse later. 'Chin' refers to a legendary poisonous bird.

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