拆东补西 — Chinese idiom
拆东补西
chāi dōng bǔ xī
Traditional: 拆東補西
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.