临阵磨枪 — Chinese idiom
临阵磨枪
lín zhèn mó qiāng
Traditional: 臨陣磨槍
Meaning
- (lit.) to sharpen one's spear only before going into battle
- (fig.) to make preparations only at the last moment
Character by character
- 临línto draw near, to approach; to descend
- 阵zhènrow, column; ranks, troop formation
- 磨mómillstone; to grind, to polish, to rub, to wear ou
- 枪qiānggun, rife; lance, spear
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.