Effort & Endurance
切齒腐心
절치부심
qiè chǐ fǔ xīn
Jeol-chi-bu-sim
切
끊을 절
齒
이 치
腐
썩을 부
心
마음 심
Character by character
Meaning
Grinding your teeth and letting your heart rot — nursing a grievance.
Origin
From the Records of the Grand Historian, describing someone enduring while vowing revenge.
How it is used
Used of preparing for the next attempt while chewing over a defeat.
Hanja切齒腐心
Simplified切齿腐心
Korean reading절치부심
Pinyinqiè chǐ fǔ xīn
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does Jeol-chi-bu-sim mean?
切齒腐心 · Grinding your teeth and letting your heart rot — nursing a grievance.
Q. Where does Jeol-chi-bu-sim come from?
From the Records of the Grand Historian, describing someone enduring while vowing revenge.
Q. How is Jeol-chi-bu-sim used?
Used of preparing for the next attempt while chewing over a defeat.
Idioms in the same group
愚公移山 U-gong-i-sanOld Man Yu moves the mountain — persistence accomplishes anything.磨斧作針 Ma-bu-jak-chimGrind an axe into a needle — dogged effort achieves even the impossible.螢雪之功 Hyeong-seol-ji-gongMerit earned reading by fireflies and snow-light — study achieved in hardship.臥薪嘗膽 Wa-sin-sang-damSleep on firewood and taste gall — endure any hardship to settle a score.百折不屈 Baek-jeol-bul-gulBroken a hundred times and still unbent.七顚八起 Chil-jeon-pal-giFall seven times, rise eight.
The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.