束手束脚 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• restricted; constrained; inhibited

Character by character

• 束shùto bind, to control, to restrain; bale
• 手shǒuhand
• 束shùto bind, to control, to restrain; bale
• 脚jiǎoleg, foot; foundation, base

Idioms sharing a character

• 束手就擒 shù shǒu jiù qín
• 束手待毙 shù shǒu dài bì
• 束手无策 shù shǒu wú cè
• 案兵束甲 àn bīng shù jiǎ
• 无拘无束 wú jū wú shù
• 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

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