旁敲侧击 — Chinese idiom
旁敲侧击
páng qiāo cè jī
Traditional: 旁敲側擊
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.