拐弯抹角 — Chinese idiom

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.