Chinese symbol for “flex”

屈挠

qū náo

Traditional: 屈撓

to surrender; to yield; to flex

The closest CC-CEDICT match for flex is 屈挠 (qū náo), defined as: to surrender; to yield; to flex.

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

屈 qū

to bend, to flex; bent, crooked, crouched

radical 44 ⼫ · 8 strokes

挠 náo

to yield; to scratch, to disturb

radical 64 ⼿ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

撓 náo

Related words

Other words that share a character with 屈挠.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
屈服	qū fú	to surrender; to succumb
委屈	wěi qu	wronged; aggrieved; to inconvenience; to put (sb) at a disadvantage; to do sb wrong
屈辱	qū rǔ	to humiliate; humiliating
不屈	bù qū	unyielding; unbending
屈从 (屈從)	qū cóng	to submit; to yield; to bow to sb's will
屈指可数 (屈指可數)	qū zhǐ kě shǔ	(lit.) can be counted on one's fingers (idiom); (fig.) very few
阻挠 (阻撓)	zǔ náo	to thwart; to obstruct (sth)
不屈不挠 (不屈不撓)	bù qū bù náo	unyielding; indomitable

See also: Japanese symbol for “flex”.

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.