卷土重来
juǎn tǔ chóng lái
to come back for another try
Character by character
卷juǎn
roll
roll
土tǔ
dust
dust
重chóng
again
again
来lái
come
come
Example
他发誓明年一定会卷土重来。
He vowed he’d be back next year for another shot.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
From Du Mu’s poem on Xiang Yu, 卷土重来未可知; 重 is chóng, and it also describes bad things returning.
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