隔岸观火 — Chinese idiom

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.