按兵不动 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to hold back one's troops without moving ; to bide one's time

Character by character

• 按ànto check, to control, to push, to restrain
• 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 动dòngto move, to happen; movement, action

Idioms sharing a character

• 按图索骥 àn tú suǒ jì
• 按部就班 àn bù jiù bān
• 先礼后兵 xiān lǐ hòu bīng
• 全民皆兵 quán mín jiē bīng
• 兵不厌诈 bīng bù yàn zhà
• 兵不血刃 bīng bù xuè rèn
• 兵家常事 bīng jiā cháng shì
• 兵强马壮 bīng qiáng mǎ zhuàng
• 兵戈扰攘 bīng gē rǎo rǎng
• 兵戎相见 bīng róng xiāng jiàn

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.