拆东补西 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. pull down the east wall to repair the west ; fig. temporary expedient
• Rob Peter to pay Paul

Character by character

• 拆chāito break open, to split up, to tear apart
• 东dōngeast, eastern, eastward
• 补bǔto fix, to mend, to patch, to restore
• 西xīwest, western, westward

Idioms sharing a character

• 过河拆桥 guò hé chāi qiáo
• 付之东流 fù zhī dōng liú
• 只欠东风 zhǐ qiàn dōng fēng
• 各奔东西 gè bèn dōng xī
• 东倒西歪 dōng dǎo xī wāi
• 东兔西乌 dōng tù xī wū
• 东奔西走 dōng bēn xī zǒu
• 东奔西跑 dōng bēn xī pǎo
• 东山再起 dōng shān zài qǐ
• 东张西望 dōng zhāng xī wàng

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