抽丝剥茧 — Chinese idiom
抽丝剥茧
chōu sī bō jiǎn
Traditional: 抽絲剝繭
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.