一鼓作气

yī gǔ zuò qì

in one burst of energy

Character by character

一yī
one

鼓gǔ
drumbeat

作zuò
rouse

气qì
spirit

我们一鼓作气爬到了山顶。

We pushed on to the summit in one go.

Tone: positive (praise).

From the Zuo Zhuan (曹刿论战): morale peaks at the first drumroll, flags at the second and is spent by the third.

Learn it in context

This idiom and thousands more are in Learn Chinese with Bao, with audio, pinyin and drills that make them stick.