裹足不前 — Chinese idiom

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.