临渴掘井 — Chinese idiom

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.