画地自限 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to draw a line on the ground to keep within
• fig. to impose restrictions on oneself

Character by character

• 画huàpicture, painting, drawing; to draw
• 地dìearth, ground, soil; land, region; structural part
• 自zìself; private, personal; from
• 限xiànboundary, limit, line

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
• 画地为牢 huà dì wéi láo
• 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.