白手起家 — Chinese idiom
白手起家
bái shǒu qǐ jiā
Meaning
- to build up from nothing; to start from scratch
Character by character
- 白báiwhite; clear, pure, unblemished; bright
- 手shǒuhand
- 起qǐto begin, to initiate; to rise, to stand up
- 家jiāhouse, home, residence; family
Idioms sharing a character
- 一清二白 yī qīng èr bái
- 不分皂白 bù fēn zào bái
- 不明不白 bù míng bù bái
- 两鬓斑白 liǎng bìn bān bái
- 平白无故 píng bái wú gù
- 恶叉白赖 è chā bái lài
- 数黑论白 shǔ hēi lùn bái
- 白旄黄钺 bái máo huáng yuè
- 白眉赤眼 bái méi chì yǎn
- 白苋紫茄 bái xiàn zǐ qié
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.