wait for gains without pains; be inflexible
Meanings
1 sense · 5 examplesidiom
to trust to chance and windfalls; to wait idly for luck
neutralThis idiom originates from a Warring States period fable about a farmer who, after finding a rabbit that died by crashing into a tree stump, abandoned his farming tools to wait by the stump for more rabbits, hoping for easy gains. It is used to criticize passive, lazy behavior or rigid, unadaptive thinking that relies on luck or old routines without taking new action.
You must study hard; you can't just wait idly for good grades to fall into your lap.
The market changes quickly; we must innovate actively and cannot just stick to old methods hoping for success.
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He spends all day fantasizing about winning the lottery; it's practically a modern version of 'waiting by the stump for rabbits'.
A mindset of waiting for luck is very dangerous in entrepreneurship.
This plan is too passive; it smacks of just waiting for things to happen.