短兵相接 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. short-weaponed soldiery fight one another ; fierce hand-to-hand infantry combat
• to fight at close quarters

Character by character

• 短duǎnbrief, short; deficient, lacking
• 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
• 相xiāngmutual, reciprocal; equal; each other
• 接jiēto connect, to join; to receive, to meet, to answe

Idioms sharing a character

• 一长一短 yī cháng yī duǎn
• 截长补短 jié cháng bǔ duǎn
• 扬长避短 yáng cháng bì duǎn
• 残年短景 cán nián duǎn jǐng
• 争长论短 zhēng cháng lùn duǎn
• 短中抽长 duǎn zhōng chōu cháng
• 短小精悍 duǎn xiǎo jīng hàn
• 纸短情长 zhǐ duǎn qíng cháng
• 蜚短流长 fēi duǎn liú cháng
• 说长道短 shuō cháng dào duǎn

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