裹足不前 — Chinese idiom
裹足不前
guǒ zú bù qián
Meaning
- to stand still without advancing ; to hesitate and hold back
Character by character
- 裹guǒto wrap, to encircle; to confine, to bind
- 足zúfoot; to attain, to satisfy; enough
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 前qiánin front, forward; former, preceding
Idioms sharing a character
- 马革裹尸 mǎ gé guǒ shī
- 一夔已足 yī kuí yǐ zú
- 三足鼎立 sān zú dǐng lì
- 不足挂齿 bù zú guà chǐ
- 不足为奇 bù zú wéi qí
- 不足为怪 bù zú wéi guài
- 人给家足 rén jǐ jiā zú
- 兵精粮足 bīng jīng liáng zú
- 削足适履 xuē zú shì lǚ
- 品头论足 pǐn tóu lùn zú
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.