捉襟见肘 — Chinese idiom
捉襟见肘
zhuō jīn jiàn zhǒu
Traditional: 捉襟見肘
Meaning
- lit. pulling on the lapels exposes the elbows
- strapped for cash
- unable to make ends meet
Character by character
- 捉zhuōto clutch, to grasp, to seize
- 襟jīnlapel, collar
- 见jiànto see, to observe, to meet, to appear
- 肘zhǒuelbow, shoulder; to help someone carry a load
Idioms sharing a character
- 捉摸不定 zhuō mō bù dìng
- 捕风捉影 bǔ fēng zhuō yǐng
- 瓮中捉鳖 wèng zhōng zhuō biē
- 贼喊捉贼 zéi hǎn zhuō zéi
- 关门捉贼 guān mén zhuō zéi
- 扼襟控咽 è jīn kòng yān
- 正襟危坐 zhèng jīn wēi zuò
- 襟怀坦白 jīn huái tǎn bái
- 一孔之见 yī kǒng zhī jiàn
- 一般见识 yī bān jiàn shi
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.