画地为牢 — Chinese idiom
画地为牢
huà dì wéi láo
Traditional: 畫地為牢
Meaning
- lit. to be confined within a circle drawn on the ground
- fig. to confine oneself to a restricted range of activities
Character by character
- 画huàpicture, painting, drawing; to draw
- 地dìearth, ground, soil; land, region; structural part
- 为wéito do, to act; to handle, to govern; to be
- 牢láopen, prison, stable; fast, firm, secure
Idioms sharing a character
- 指手画脚 zhǐ shǒu huà jiǎo
- 照猫画虎 zhào māo huà hǔ
- 琴棋书画 qín qí shū huà
- 画地自限 huà dì zì xiàn
- 画荻教子 huà dí jiào zǐ
- 画虎类犬 huà hǔ lèi quǎn
- 画蛇添足 huà shé tiān zú
- 画饼充饥 huà bǐng chōng jī
- 画龙点睛 huà lóng diǎn jīng
- 一败涂地 yī bài tú dì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.