隔岸观火 — Chinese idiom
隔岸观火
gé àn guān huǒ
Traditional: 隔岸觀火
Meaning
- to watch the fires burning across the river
- to delay entering the fray until all others have been exhausted by fighting amongst themselves
Character by character
- 隔géto separate, to partition, to divide
- 岸ànbeach, coast, shore
- 观guānto observe, to spectate; appearance, view
- 火huǒfire, flame; to burn; anger, rage
Idioms sharing a character
- 天地悬隔 tiān dì xuán gé
- 与世隔绝 yǔ shì gé jué
- 隔三差五 gé sān chà wǔ
- 隔年皇历 gé nián huáng lì
- 隔墙有耳 gé qiáng yǒu ěr
- 隔靴搔痒 gé xuē sāo yǎng
- 高岸深谷 gāo àn shēn gǔ
- 冷眼旁观 lěng yǎn páng guān
- 动见观瞻 dòng jiàn guān zhān
- 叹为观止 tàn wéi guān zhǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.