旁敲侧击 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to make insinuations
• to take an indirect approach (in making inquiries)

Character by character

• 旁pángside; beside, close, nearby
• 敲qiāoto hammer, to pound, to strike
• 侧cèside; to slant, to lean, to incline
• 击jīto strike, to hit, to beat; to attack, to fight

Idioms sharing a character

• 冷眼旁观 lěng yǎn páng guān
• 旁观者清 páng guān zhě qīng
• 旁门左道 páng mén zuǒ dào
• 袖手旁观 xiù shǒu páng guān
• 敲诈勒索 qiāo zhà lè suǒ
• 敲钉钻脚 qiāo dīng zuān jiǎo
• 盎盂相敲 àng yú xiāng qiāo
• 零打碎敲 líng dǎ suì qiāo
• 零敲碎打 líng qiāo suì dǎ
• 珠玉在侧 zhū yù zài cè

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