手忙脚乱 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to act with confusion or in a disorderly manner; flustered

Character by character

• 手shǒuhand
• 忙mángbusy, hurried, pressed for time
• 脚jiǎoleg, foot; foundation, base
• 乱luànanarchy, chaos; revolt

Idioms sharing a character

• 七手八脚 qī shǒu bā jiǎo
• 上下其手 shàng xià qí shǒu
• 假手于人 jiǎ shǒu yú rén
• 两手空空 liǎng shǒu kōng kōng
• 大手大脚 dà shǒu dà jiǎo
• 大显身手 dà xiǎn shēn shǒu
• 妙手回春 miào shǒu huí chūn
• 得心应手 dé xīn yìng shǒu
• 心慈手软 xīn cí shǒu ruǎn
• 心狠手辣 xīn hěn shǒu là

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