Chinese idiom · 成语
倾巢而出
Meaning
The whole nest comes out; full mobilization.
Character by character
Origin and story
Traditional metaphorThe image is an emptied nest: every member has gone out. Applied to people, it means a group deploys its entire force or turns out together. The consulted Ministry of Education dictionary confirms this meaning but supplies no founding narrative or early quotation. A particular first event therefore cannot be responsibly attached to it on that evidence.
The nest image makes the collective scale vivid. It is commonly used for an opposing force and can sound disparaging; broader contemporary usage also describes a whole organization coming out. It is not a description of one person exerting maximum effort, nor does it necessarily mean a nest has been physically destroyed.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
游戏里的怪物倾巢而出，我们连忙退回城门后。
The monsters in the game poured out in full force, and we hurried back behind the city gates.
Often disparaging toward a hostile group; means the whole group comes out.