凿壁偷光 — Chinese idiom

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.