Chinese · Idiom Attested

鞠躬尽瘁

jū gōng jìn cuì

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Traditional: 鞠躬盡瘁

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To devote yourself to a duty with complete loyalty, working until your strength gives out. High praise for a selfless public servant; the full saying adds 'and stop only at death'.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Hết lòng hết sức, tận tuỵ với công việc, với việc chung cho đến khi kiệt sức. Lời khen trang trọng dành cho người phục vụ quên mình; câu đầy đủ còn thêm vế “đến chết mới thôi”.

Literally: bow in duty, wear oneself out

Examples

老校长为学校鞠躬尽瘁，工作了一辈子。Lǎo xiàozhǎng wèi xuéxiào jū gōng jìn cuì, gōngzuò le yībèizi.The old headmaster gave the school everything he had, working there his whole life.

Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check

Sources & notes

Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): etymology of “cúc cung tận tuỵ” = 鞠躬盡瘁 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “cúc cung tận tuỵ” (cuc-cung-tan-tuy). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.

Equivalents & related

Hán-Việt cognate cúc cung tận tuỵ (adjective) bent to a task and exerting oneself to the utmost in the performance of one's duty Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “鞠躬尽瘁” mean?

To devote yourself to a duty with complete loyalty, working until your strength gives out. High praise for a selfless public servant; the full saying adds 'and stop only at death'. Literally: bow in duty, wear oneself out

Is “鞠躬尽瘁” formal or informal?

鞠躬尽瘁 is generally formal.

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