芒刺在背 — Chinese idiom
芒刺在背
máng cì zài bèi
Meaning
- feeling brambles and thorns in one's back
- uneasy and nervous
- to be on pins and needles
Character by character
- 芒mángblade; ray; silvergrass, Miscanthus sinensis
- 刺cìto stab; to prick, to irritate; to prod
- 在zàiat, in, on; to exist; used to indicate the present
- 背bèiback, backside; to betray, to violate
Idioms sharing a character
- 光芒万丈 guāng máng wàn zhàng
- 锋芒内敛 fēng máng nèi liǎn
- 寒风刺骨 hán fēng cì gǔ
- 悬梁刺股 xuán liáng cì gǔ
- 事在人为 shì zài rén wéi
- 胜券在握 shèng quàn zài wò
- 势在必得 shì zài bì dé
- 势在必行 shì zài bì xíng
- 危在旦夕 wēi zài dàn xī
- 命在旦夕 mìng zài dàn xī
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.