凿壁偷光 — Chinese idiom
凿壁偷光
záo bì tōu guāng
Traditional: 鑿壁偷光
Meaning
- lit. to pierce the wall to steal a light
- fig. to study diligently in the face of hardship
Character by character
- 凿záochisel; to bore, to pierce
- 壁bìpartition, wall; rampart
- 偷tōuto steal; burglar, thief
- 光guānglight; bright, brilliant; only, merely
Idioms sharing a character
- 妄生穿凿 wàng shēng chuān záo
- 方枘圆凿 fāng ruì yuán záo
- 确凿不移 què záo bù yí
- 穿凿附会 chuān záo fù huì
- 言之凿凿 yán zhī záo záo
- 向壁虚构 xiàng bì xū gòu
- 向壁虚造 xiàng bì xū zào
- 坚壁清野 jiān bì qīng yě
- 壁垒一新 bì lěi yī xīn
- 壁立千仞 bì lì qiān rèn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.