赤贫如洗 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• without two nickels to rub together
• impoverished

Character by character

• 赤chìred, scarlet; blushing; bare, naked
• 贫pínpoor, needy, impoverished; lacking
• 如rúas, as if, like, such as, supposing
• 洗xǐto bathe, to rinse, to wash

Idioms sharing a character

• 白眉赤眼 bái méi chì yǎn
• 赤手空拳 chì shǒu kōng quán
• 赤膊上阵 chì bó shàng zhèn
• 赤胆忠心 chì dǎn zhōng xīn
• 金无足赤 jīn wú zú chì
• 一贫如洗 yī pín rú xǐ
• 劫富济贫 jié fù jì pín
• 嫌贫爱富 xián pín ài fù
• 安富恤贫 ān fù xù pín
• 安贫乐道 ān pín lè dào

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