虎头蛇尾

hǔ tóu shé wěi

a fine start and a poor finish

Character by character

虎hǔ
tiger

头tóu
head

蛇shé
snake

尾wěi
tail

做事不能虎头蛇尾。

Don't start things with a bang and end with a whimper.

Tone: negative (criticism).

A common criticism of projects, campaigns and essays; opposite of 善始善终.

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