缩衣节食 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to economize on clothes and food
• to scrimp and save

Character by character

• 缩suōto withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
• 衣yīcloth; clothes, apparel; dress, coat
• 节jiéfestival; knot, joint; segment; to economize, to s
• 食shífood; to eat

Idioms sharing a character

• 畏缩不前 wèi suō bù qián
• 节衣缩食 jié yī suō shí
• 缩手缩脚 suō shǒu suō jiǎo
• 临阵退缩 lín zhèn tuì suō
• 天衣无缝 tiān yī wú fèng
• 宵衣旰食 xiāo yī gàn shí
• 牛衣对泣 niú yī duì qì
• 白衣苍狗 bái yī cāng gǒu
• 相体裁衣 xiàng tǐ cái yī
• 腰金衣紫 yāo jīn yī zǐ

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