剑拔弩张 — Chinese idiom
剑拔弩张
jiàn bá nǔ zhāng
Traditional: 劍拔弩張
Meaning
- lit. with swords drawn and bows bent ; fig. a state of mutual hostility
- at daggers drawn
Character by character
- 剑jiànsword, dagger, saber
- 拔báto uproot, to pull out; to select, to promote
- 弩nǔcrossbow; an arrow falling, a downward stroke
- 张zhāngto display; to expand, to open; to stretch; a shee
Idioms sharing a character
- 刀光剑影 dāo guāng jiàn yǐng
- 刀枪剑戟 dāo qiāng jiàn jǐ
- 刻舟求剑 kè zhōu qiú jiàn
- 剑眉星目 jiàn méi xīng mù
- 口蜜腹剑 kǒu mì fù jiàn
- 唇枪舌剑 chún qiāng shé jiàn
- 琴剑飘零 qín jiàn piāo líng
- 铸剑为犁 zhù jiàn wéi lí
- 一毛不拔 yī máo bù bá
- 出类拔萃 chū lèi bá cuì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.