捷足先登 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• the quick-footed climb up first
• the early bird catches the worm
• first come, first served

Character by character

• 捷jiénimble, quick; triumph, victory
• 足zúfoot; to attain, to satisfy; enough
• 先xiānfirst, former, previous
• 登dēngto rise, to mount, to board, to climb

Idioms sharing a character

• 捷报频传 jié bào pín chuán
• 终南捷径 Zhōng nán jié jìng
• 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

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.