King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “balk”

逡巡不前
qūn xún bù qián
to hesitate to move forward; to balk; to jib

The closest CC-CEDICT match for balk is 逡巡不前 (qūn xún bù qián), defined as: to hesitate to move forward; to balk; to jib.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

逡 qūn
to withdraw, to retreat, to fall back
radical 162 ⾡ · 10 strokes
巡 xún
to cruise, to inspect, to patrol
radical 162 ⾡ · 6 strokes
不 bù
no, not, un-; negative prefix
radical 1 ⼀ · 4 strokes
前 qián
in front, forward; former, preceding
radical 18 ⼑ · 9 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 逡巡不前.

WordPinyinMeaning
逡巡qūn xúnto draw back; to move back and forth
巡逻 (巡邏)xún luóto patrol
巡抚 (巡撫)xún fǔinspector-general of province in Ming and Qing times
巡视 (巡視)xún shìto inspect (a site); (of a dignitary) to visit; to go on an inspection tour; to survey (a scene); to scan with one's eyes
巡回 (巡迴)xún huíto go around; to roam; to tour
巡演xún yǎn(theater etc) to tour; to be on tour; to give itinerant performances (abbr. for 巡回演出 (xún huí yǎn chū))
巡航xún háng(military) to patrol (airspace or waters); (technical) to cruise; to maintain steady speed
不是bù shìno; is not
目前mù qiánat the present time; currently

See also: Japanese symbol for “balk”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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