扒高踩低 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• crawl high, step low ; unprincipled crawling, flattering one's superiors and trampling on one's juniors
• toadying and bullying

Character by character

• 扒páto scratch, to dig up; to crouch, to crawl
• 高gāotall, lofty; high, elevated
• 踩cǎito step on; to stamp
• 低dīlow; to lower, to hang; to bend, to bow

Idioms sharing a character

• 吃里扒外 chī lǐ pá wài
• 揪心扒肝 jiū xīn bā gān
• 一见高低 yī jiàn gāo dī
• 不识高低 bù shí gāo dī
• 债台高筑 zhài tái gāo zhù
• 功高不赏 gōng gāo bù shǎng
• 功高望重 gōng gāo wàng zhòng
• 功高盖主 gōng gāo gài zhǔ
• 另请高明 lìng qǐng gāo míng
• 另谋高就 lìng móu gāo jiù

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.