指桑骂槐 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to point at the mulberry tree and curse the locust tree
• fig. to scold sb indirectly
• to make oblique accusations

Character by character

• 指zhǐfinger, toe; to point, to indicate
• 桑sāngmulberry tree; surname
• 骂màto accuse, to blame, to curse, to scold
• 槐huáilocust tree

Idioms sharing a character

• 一弹指顷 yī tán zhǐ qǐng
• 了如指掌 liǎo rú zhǐ zhǎng
• 令人发指 lìng rén fà zhǐ
• 如臂使指 rú bì shǐ zhǐ
• 屈指可数 qū zhǐ kě shǔ
• 弹指之间 tán zhǐ zhī jiān
• 指手画脚 zhǐ shǒu huà jiǎo
• 指日可待 zhǐ rì kě dài
• 指腹为婚 zhǐ fù wéi hūn
• 指鸡骂狗 zhǐ jī mà gǒu

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