东窗事发 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• (of a plot etc) to be exposed
• to come to light

Character by character

• 东dōngeast, eastern, eastward
• 窗chuāngwindow
• 事shìaffair, matter, business; to serve; accident, inci
• 发fāto issue, to dispatch, to send out; hair

Idioms sharing a character

• 付之东流 fù zhī dōng liú
• 只欠东风 zhǐ qiàn dōng fēng
• 各奔东西 gè bèn dōng xī
• 拆东补西 chāi dōng bǔ 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.