枕戈寝甲 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to sleep on one's armor with a spear as a pillow
• fig. to keep ready for battle at all times

Character by character

• 枕zhěnpillow
• 戈gēspear, lance, halberd
• 寝qǐnto sleep, to rest; bedroom
• 甲jiǎarmor, shell; fingernails; 1st heavenly stem

Idioms sharing a character

• 寝苫枕块 qǐn shān zhěn kuài
• 曲肱而枕 qū gōng ér zhěn
• 枕冷衾寒 zhěn lěng qīn hán
• 枕戈待旦 zhěn gē dài dàn
• 枕石漱流 zhěn shí shù liú
• 高枕无忧 gāo zhěn wú yōu
• 兵戈扰攘 bīng gē rǎo rǎng
• 同室操戈 tóng shì cāo gē
• 大动干戈 dà dòng gān gē
• 寝食难安 qǐn shí nán ān

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