趋炎附势 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to curry favor ; playing up to those in power
• social climbing

Character by character

• 趋qūto hurry, to hasten; to approach, to be attracted
• 炎yánflame, blaze; hot
• 附fùnearby; to adhere to, to attach; to rely on
• 势shìpower, force; tendency, attitude

Idioms sharing a character

• 亦步亦趋 yì bù yì qū
• 大势所趋 dà shì suǒ qū
• 趋之若鹜 qū zhī ruò wù
• 趋利避害 qū lì bì hài
• 趋吉避凶 qū jí bì xiōng
• 世态炎凉 shì tài yán liáng
• 夤缘攀附 yín yuán pān fù
• 如蛆附骨 rú qū fù gǔ
• 如蚁附膻 rú yǐ fù shān
• 扳龙附凤 bān lóng fù fèng

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