爱莫能助 — Chinese idiom
爱莫能助
ài mò néng zhù
Traditional: 愛莫能助
Meaning
- unable to help however much one would like to ; Although we sympathize, there is no way to help you.
- My hands are tied.
Character by character
- 爱àito love, to like, to be fond of; love, affection
- 莫mòcannot; do not; is not; negative
- 能néngcan, may; capable, full of energy
- 助zhùto help, to aid, to assist
Idioms sharing a character
- 因爱成恨 yīn ài chéng hèn
- 嫌贫爱富 xián pín ài fù
- 忠君爱国 zhōng jūn ài guó
- 爱不忍释 ài bù rěn shì
- 爱不释手 ài bù shì shǒu
- 爱屋及乌 ài wū jí wū
- 爱惜羽毛 ài xī yǔ máo
- 爱才若渴 ài cái ruò kě
- 爱民如子 ài mín rú zǐ
- 爱理不理 ài lǐ bù lǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.