临阵退缩 — Chinese idiom
临阵退缩
lín zhèn tuì suō
Traditional: 臨陣退縮
Meaning
- to shrink back as the time for battle approaches
- to get cold feet
Character by character
- 临línto draw near, to approach; to descend
- 阵zhènrow, column; ranks, troop formation
- 退tuìto retreat, to step back, to withdraw
- 缩suōto withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
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.