芒刺在背 — Chinese idiom

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.