临渴穿井 — Chinese idiom
临渴穿井
lín kě chuān jǐng
Traditional: 臨渴穿井
Meaning
- lit. face thirst and dig a well ; fig. not to make adequate provision
- to act when it is too late
Character by character
- 临línto draw near, to approach; to descend
- 渴kěthirsty, parched; to yearn, to pine for
- 穿chuānto drill, to pierce; to dress, to wear
- 井jǐngwell, mine shaft, pit
Idioms sharing a character
- 事到临头 shì dào lín tóu
- 兵临城下 bīng lín chéng xià
- 大限临头 dà xiàn lín tóu
- 大难临头 dà nàn lín tóu
- 如临大敌 rú lín dà dí
- 如临深渊 rú lín shēn yuān
- 居高临下 jū gāo lín xià
- 死到临头 sǐ dào lín tóu
- 临危受命 lín wēi shòu mìng
- 临渴掘井 lín kě jué jǐng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.