削足适履 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to cut the feet to fit the shoes ; to force sth to fit (as to a Procrustean bed)
• impractical or inelegant solution

Character by character

• 削xuēto pare, to scrape, to trim
• 足zúfoot; to attain, to satisfy; enough
• 适shìmatch, comfortable; just
• 履lǚshoes; to walk, to tread

Idioms sharing a character

• 削职为民 xuē zhí wéi mín
• 一夔已足 yī kuí yǐ zú
• 三足鼎立 sān zú dǐng lì
• 不足挂齿 bù zú guà chǐ
• 不足为奇 bù zú wéi qí
• 不足为怪 bù zú wéi guài
• 人给家足 rén jǐ jiā zú
• 兵精粮足 bīng jīng liáng zú
• 品头论足 pǐn tóu lùn zú
• 家给人足 jiā jǐ rén zú

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