作茧自缚 — Chinese idiom
作茧自缚
zuò jiǎn zì fù
Traditional: 作繭自縛
Meaning
- to spin a cocoon around oneself ; enmeshed in a trap of one's own devising
- hoist by his own petard
Character by character
- 作zuòto make; to write, to compose; to act, to perform
- 茧jiǎncocoon; callus, blister
- 自zìself; private, personal; from
- 缚fùto tie, to bind
Idioms sharing a character
- 并肩作战 bìng jiān zuò zhàn
- 以身作则 yǐ shēn zuò zé
- 作威作福 zuò wēi zuò fú
- 作鸟兽散 zuò niǎo shòu sàn
- 俾夜作昼 bǐ yè zuò zhòu
- 呼牛作马 hū niú zuò mǎ
- 回嗔作喜 huí chēn zuò xǐ
- 天作之合 tiān zuò zhī hé
- 天公作美 tiān gōng zuò měi
- 始作俑者 shǐ zuò yǒng zhě
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.