抽丝剥茧 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• (lit.) to unwind the silk thread from the cocoon
• (fig.) to unravel a mystery; to painstakingly follow the clues to eventually get to the bottom of the matter

Character by character

• 抽chōuto draw out, to pull out; to sprout
• 丝sīsilk, fine thread; wire; strings
• 剥bōto peel, to skin; to exploit
• 茧jiǎncocoon; callus, blister

Idioms sharing a character

• 抽抽噎噎 chōu chou yē yē
• 短中抽长 duǎn zhōng chōu cháng
• 一丝一毫 yī sī yī háo
• 一丝不挂 yī sī bù guà
• 一丝不苟 yī sī bù gǒu
• 千丝万缕 qiān sī wàn lǚ
• 吐丝自缚 tǔ sī zì fù
• 严丝合缝 yán sī hé fèng
• 治丝益棼 zhì sī yì fén
• 纹丝不动 wén sī bù dòng

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