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过河拆桥

guò hé chāi qiáo

to drop people once they’ve served their purpose

Character by character

过guò
cross
河hé
river
拆chāi
demolish
桥qiáo
bridge

Example

项目一成功,他就过河拆桥,把我们踢开了。
The moment the project succeeded, he kicked us aside.

Tone: negative (criticism).

Usage and origin

Of using people and discarding them.

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