背城借一 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to make a last-ditch stand before the city wall ; to fight to the last ditch
• to put up a desperate struggle

Character by character

• 背bèiback, backside; to betray, to violate
• 城chéngcastle, city, town; municipality
• 借jièto borrow; to lend; excuse, pretext
• 一yīone; a, an; alone

Idioms sharing a character

• 勾肩搭背 gōu jiān dā bèi
• 扼喉抚背 è hóu fǔ bèi
• 挨肩擦背 āi jiān cā bèi
• 弃约背盟 qì yuē bèi méng
• 汗流浃背 hàn liú jiā bèi
• 背井离乡 bèi jǐng lí xiāng
• 背信弃义 bèi xìn qì yì
• 背水一战 bèi shuǐ yī zhàn
• 背道而驰 bèi dào ér chí
• 腹背受敌 fù bèi shòu dí

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