一败涂地

yī bài tú dì

to suffer a crushing defeat

Character by character

一yī
one

败bài
defeat

涂tú
smear

地dì
ground

上半场还领先，结果下半场一败涂地。

They were ahead at half-time, then got crushed in the second half.

Tone: negative (criticism).

From Liu Bang’s words in 《史记》: one defeat and our brains would be smeared on the ground.

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