左右为难 — Chinese idiom
左右为难
zuǒ yòu wéi nán
Traditional: 左右為難
Meaning
- between a rock and a hard place
- in a dilemma
Character by character
- 左zuǒleft; unorthodox, improper
- 右yòuright; right-wing
- 为wéito do, to act; to handle, to govern; to be
- 难nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
Idioms sharing a character
- 左券在握 zuǒ quàn zài wò
- 左右两难 zuǒ yòu liǎng nán
- 左右逢源 zuǒ yòu féng yuán
- 左右开弓 zuǒ yòu kāi gōng
- 左思右想 zuǒ sī yòu xiǎng
- 左拥右抱 zuǒ yōng yòu bào
- 左膀右臂 zuǒ bǎng yòu bì
- 左道惑众 zuǒ dào huò zhòng
- 左顾右盼 zuǒ gù yòu pàn
- 旁门左道 páng mén zuǒ dào
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.