招兵买马 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to recruit soldiers and buy horses
• fig. to raise an army; to recruit new staff

Character by character

• 招zhāoto summon; to recruit; to levy
• 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
• 买mǎito buy, to purchase; to bribe, to persuade
• 马mǎhorse; surname

Idioms sharing a character

• 招摇撞骗 zhāo yáo zhuàng piàn
• 招摇过市 zhāo yáo guò shì
• 招蜂引蝶 zhāo fēng yǐn dié
• 招贤纳士 zhāo xián nà shì
• 招降纳叛 zhāo xiáng nà pàn
• 招风惹草 zhāo fēng rě cǎo
• 扬幡招魂 yáng fān zhāo hún
• 树大招风 shù dà zhāo fēng
• 目挑心招 mù tiǎo xīn zhāo
• 花枝招展 huā zhī zhāo zhǎn

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