临渴掘井 — Chinese idiom
临渴掘井
lín kě jué jǐng
Traditional: 臨渴掘井
Meaning
- lit. not to dig a well until one is thirsty
- to be unprepared and seek help at the last minute
Character by character
- 临línto draw near, to approach; to descend
- 渴kěthirsty, parched; to yearn, to pine for
- 掘juéto dig, to excavate
- 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
- 临渴穿井 lín kě chuān jǐng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.