拐弯抹角 — Chinese idiom
拐弯抹角
guǎi wān mò jiǎo
Traditional: 拐彎抹角
Meaning
- lit. going round the curves and skirting the corners
- fig. to speak in a roundabout way
- to equivocate
- to beat about the bush
Character by character
- 拐guǎito kidnap, to abduct; to turn; crutch
- 弯wānbend, curve, turn
- 抹mòto apply; to erase, to smear, to wipe off
- 角jiǎoangle, corner; horn, horn-shaped
Idioms sharing a character
- 七弯八拐 qī wān bā guǎi
- 坑蒙拐骗 kēng mēng guǎi piàn
- 曲里拐弯 qū lǐ guǎi wān
- 吃干抹净 chī gān mā jìng
- 涂脂抹粉 tú zhī mǒ fěn
- 抹不下脸 mǒ bù xià liǎn
- 淡妆浓抹 dàn zhuāng nóng mǒ
- 浓妆艳抹 nóng zhuāng yàn mǒ
- 初露头角 chū lù tóu jiǎo
- 勾心斗角 gōu xīn dòu jiǎo
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.