东倒西歪 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to lean unsteadily from side to side
• to sway
• (of buildings etc) to lean at a crazy angle

Character by character

• 东dōngeast, eastern, eastward
• 倒dǎoto collapse, to fall over; to lie down
• 西xīwest, western, westward
• 歪wāislanted, askew, awry

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
• 东征西怨 dōng zhēng xī yuàn

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