理屈词穷 — Chinese idiom
理屈词穷
lǐ qū cí qióng
Traditional: 理屈詞窮
Meaning
- lit. having presented a flawed argument, one has nothing further to add
- fig. unable to provide a convincing argument to support one's position
- to not have a leg to stand on
Character by character
- 理lǐscience, reason, logic; to manage
- 屈qūto bend, to flex; bent, crooked, crouched
- 词cíphrase, expression; words, speech
- 穷qióngpoor, destitute; to exhaust
Idioms sharing a character
- 不可理喻 bù kě lǐ yù
- 不明事理 bù míng shì lǐ
- 不理不睬 bù lǐ bù cǎi
- 伤天害理 shāng tiān hài lǐ
- 入情入理 rù qíng rù lǐ
- 合情合理 hé qíng hé lǐ
- 喜结连理 xǐ jié lián lǐ
- 丧天害理 sàng tiān hài lǐ
- 坐视不理 zuò shì bù lǐ
- 天理难容 tiān lǐ nán róng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.