钳马衔枚 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• with horses and soldiers gagged
• (of a marching army) in utter silence

Character by character

• 钳qiánpincers, pliers, tongs; to compress
• 马mǎhorse; surname
• 衔xiánrank, title; to bite, to hold in the mouth
• 枚méithe stalk of a shrub, the trunk of a tree

Idioms sharing a character

• 一马平川 yī mǎ píng chuān
• 一马当先 yī mǎ dāng xiān
• 中箭落马 zhòng jiàn luò mǎ
• 五马分尸 wǔ mǎ fēn shī
• 人仰马翻 rén yǎng mǎ fān
• 人喊马嘶 rén hǎn mǎ sī
• 人困马乏 rén kùn mǎ fá
• 兵强马壮 bīng qiáng mǎ zhuàng
• 兵荒马乱 bīng huāng mǎ luàn
• 北叟失马 běi sǒu shī mǎ

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