King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “stalled”

进退不得
jìn tuì bù dé
Traditional: 進退不得
can't advance or retreat (idiom); no room for maneuver; stalled; in a dilemma; stuck in a difficult position

The closest CC-CEDICT match for stalled is 进退不得 (jìn tuì bù dé), defined as: can't advance or retreat (idiom); no room for maneuver; stalled; in a dilemma; stuck in a difficult position.

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

进 jìn
to advance, to make progress; to come in, to enter
radical 162 ⾡ · 7 strokes
退 tuì
to retreat, to step back, to withdraw
radical 162 ⾡ · 10 strokes
不 bù
no, not, un-; negative prefix
radical 1 ⼀ · 4 strokes
得 dé
to obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable, proper; ready
radical 60 ⼻ · 11 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 进退不得.

WordPinyinMeaning
进行 (進行)jìn xíng(of a process etc) to proceed; to be in progress; to be underway; (of people) to carry out; to conduct (an investigation or discussion etc)
进入 (進入)jìn rùto enter; to go into
进一步 (進一步)jìn yī bùto go a step further; (develop, understand, improve etc) more; further
促进 (促進)cù jìnto promote (an idea or cause); to advance; boost
先进 (先進)xiān jìnsophisticated; advanced (technology etc); meritorious; exemplary (deeds etc)
进步 (進步)jìn bùprogress; improvement; to improve; to progress
退出tuì chūto withdraw; to abort
退休tuì xiūto retire (from the workforce); to go into retirement
不是bù shìno; is not
觉得 (覺得)jué deto think that ...; to feel that ...; to feel (uncomfortable etc)

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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