水中捞月 — Chinese idiom
水中捞月
shuǐ zhōng lāo yuè
Traditional: 水中撈月
Meaning
- (lit.) to scoop the moon out of the water
- (fig.) a hopeless endeavor
Character by character
- 水shuǐwater, liquid, lotion, juice
- 中zhōngcentral; center, middle; amidst; to hit (target),
- 捞lāoto dredge up; to fish for; to scoop out of the wat
- 月yuèmoon; month
Idioms sharing a character
- 一清如水 yī qīng rú shuǐ
- 似水年华 sì shuǐ nián huá
- 出水芙蓉 chū shuǐ fú róng
- 如鱼得水 rú yú dé shuǐ
- 山明水秀 shān míng shuǐ xiù
- 山清水秀 shān qīng shuǐ xiù
- 山穷水尽 shān qióng shuǐ jìn
- 山长水远 shān cháng shuǐ yuǎn
- 山高水长 shān gāo shuǐ cháng
- 山高水险 shān gāo shuǐ xiǎn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.