A
●矮子里拔将军直：pick a general from among the dwarfs
意：select someone for lack of a better one;
select from among the mediocre/ run-of-mill
B
●八字还没一撇直：Not even the first stroke of the character “八” has happened.
意：Nothing tangible is in sight.
Things aren’t even starting to take place yet.
There is no sign of anything happening yet.
Things are still up in the air.
●班门弄斧直：Wield the axe before Lu Ban (the ancient master carpenter).
意：display one’s learning or parade one’s skill in the presence of an
expert;
teach one’s grannie how to suck egges;
bring coal to Newcastle
●杯弓蛇影直：mistake the shadow of a bow in the cup for a snake
意：self-created suspicion;
imaginary fears;
be extremely nervous and suspicious
●杯水车薪直：try to put out a carload of burnig firewood with a cup of water
意：a useless attempt;
a drop in the bucket;
utterly inadequate measure
●背水一战直：fight with one’s back to the river or wall
意：fight to win or die;
fight a last-ditch battle;
put up a desperate fight
●冰冻三尺，直：It takes more than one cold day to freeze three feet of ice.
非一日之寒意：The trouble is deep-rooted;
Rome was not built in a day.
●兵来将挡，直：stop an advancing army with troops and onrushing water with
earth
水来土掩意：counter move for move;
counter measure for measure
●不以规矩，直：You cannot draw squares and circles without the campass and
square.
不成方圆意：Nothing can be accomplished without norms and standards.
C
●草木皆兵直：take every grass and tree as an enemy soldier
意：a state of extreme nervousness, as if surrounded by enemies
●沧海桑田直：Seas change into mulberry fields.
意：Time brings great change to the world.
(饱经沧桑：have experienced many vicissitudes of life)
●赤膊上阵直：go into battle stripped to the waist
意：take personal charge and go it alone despite opposition;
Throw away all disguise and tactics;
come out into the open as a result of desperation or foolhardiness ●此地无银直：The 300 taels of silver are not buried here (a sign put up by the man in
the
三百两folk tale over the place where he had hidden the money)
意：A clumsy self-exposing performance or denial;
A guilty person gives himself away by conspicuously protesting his
innocence;
Protest one’s innocence too much.
●吹胡子瞪眼直：froth at the mouth and glare with rage
意：snort and stare in anger;
fume with rage
●唇亡齿寒直：If the lips are gone, the teeth will be exposed.
意：If one of two interdependent things falls, the other is in danger.
●吹毛求疵直：blow upon the hair trying to discover a flaw
意：find fault with;
pick holes in
●寸有所长，直：An inch has its length and a foot sometmes falls short.
尺有所短意：Everybody has his strennths and weaknesses.
D
●打肿脸直：Try to look fat by slapping one’s face till it’s swollen.
充胖子Boast about one’s pink cheek after having been slapped.
意：Do something beyond one’s means in order to look impressive;
try to satisfy one’s vanity when one cannot really afford to do so
●当一天和尚直：go on tolling the bell as long as one remains a monk.
撞一天钟意：do the minimum required or do as little as possible to get by;
do the least that is expected of one;
take a passive attitude towards one’s work
●调虎离山直：lure the tiger out of his mountain or lair
意：tempt or entice somebody into leaving his vantage ground
●叠床架屋直：pile one bed upon another or build one house on top of another
意：needless duplication;
repetition and superfluity
●东方不亮直：When there is dark in the east, it is light in the west;
西方亮，When things are dark in the south, there is still light in the north.
黑了南方
有北方意：There is alsways plenty of room for manoeuvring.
E
F
●放长线直：throw a long line to catch a big fish
钓大鱼意：devise a long-term plan to secure something big
●翻手为云直：produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another
覆手为雨意：wield one’s power capriciously;
be shifty and capricious;
be tricky and deceitful
●放马后炮直：fire belated shots
意：comment on something when it is already over;
fail to give timely advice;
be a Monday morning quarterback
●风声鹤唳直：scared by the moan of the wind and the cry of the cranes, and seeing
the
草木皆兵enemy in every bush and tree
意：describing the extreme nervousness of a fleeing army’s suspicion of
danger at the slightest sound
●风调雨顺直：The elements are propitious, the country is prosperous and the
people are
国泰民安at peace.
意：favorable climate, prosperity and peace
●风雨同舟直：in the same storm-tossed boat
意：stand together through thick and thin;
share weal and woe;
help each other in distress;
share the same fate with;
cast in one’s lot with
●佛面蛇心直：have a Buddha’s face but a viper’s heart
意：be honey-lipped but evil at heart;
be a malicious hypocrite
●佛要金装直：As Buddha needs a gilt statue, man needs fine clothes.
人要衣装意：Fine feather make fine birds; Fine clothes make the man.
●釜底抽薪直：pull out the burning firewood from under a cauldron
意：take drastic measures to deal with a critical situation;
cut the ground from under somebody’s feet;
tackle the root cause
●赴汤蹈火直：be ready to jump into boiling water and plunge into raging fire
意：go through hell and high water;
be ready to risk one’s life
G
●肝脑涂地直：be ready to dash one’s brains out or scatter one’s innards on the
ground
意：be ready to lay down one’s life for a cause;
be willing to repay a favor with extreme sacrifice
●赶鸭子上架直：drive a duck onto a perch
意：make somebody do something entirely beyond him
●隔岸观火直：watch a fire from the other side of a river
意：look on at somebody’s misfortune with indifference;
show no concern for another’s trouble
●狗咬吕洞宾直：snarl and snap at Lü Dongbin (one of the eight immortals in Chinese
mythology)
意：mistake a good man for a bad one
(狗咬吕洞宾，不识好人心。
Like the dog that bit Lü Dongbin, you bite the hand that feeds you.)
●狗嘴里吐不出直：No ivory can come out of a dog’s mouth.
象牙意：A filthy mouth can’t utter decent hanguage;
You can’t expect anything nice from a foul mouth.
●孤掌难鸣直：It is impossible to clap with one hand.
意：It is difficult to achieve without support.
●瓜熟蒂落直：When a melon is ripe, it falls off its stem.
意：Issues will be resolved when conditions are ripe.
H
●海底捞月直：try to fish out the moon from the bottom of the sea
意：strive for the impossible or illusory;
a fruitless effort or futile attempt
●海水不可斗量直：The sea cannot be measured with a bushel.
意：Great minds cannot be fathomed.
●害群之马直：an evil horse that does harm to the herd
意：one who brings disgrace on or constitutes a danger to one’s group;
a black sheep
●寒窗直：cold window
意：hard conditions under which a poor scholar studies
●汗牛充栋直：enough books to make the pack-ox sweat or to fill a house to the
rafters
意：immense number of books
●好马不吃直：A spirited horse will not turn back to graze on an old pasture.
回头草意：A true man will not pick up what he has discarded.
●和尚打伞，直：Like a Buddhist monk holding an umbrella, thre is no hair (发, a
无法无天homophone for 法law) nor heaven.
意：defy laws human and divine;
be absolutely lawless;
run wild
●和风细雨直：like a gentle breeze and light rain
意：in a gentle and mild way
●红白喜事直：red and white affairs
意：weddings and funerals
●呼风唤雨直：summon the wind and the rain;
bid wind and rain to come
意：control the forces of nature;
exercise magic powers
●狐狸尾巴直：fox’s tail
意：something that gives away a person’s real character or evil intensions ●虎踞龙盘直：like a coiling dragon and crouching tiger
意：a forbidding strategic point
●虎头蛇尾直：with a tiger’s head but a snake’s tail
意：with a fine start and a poor finish
●画龙点睛直：Bring the painted dragon to life by putting in the pupils of its eyes
意：add the finishing touch;
add a touch that brings a work of art to life;
bring out the crucial point;
add a word or two to clinch the point;
The revelation comes in the last paragraph.
●画饼充饥直：Draw a cake to satisfy one’s hunger.
意：feed on illusions;
console oneself with false hope
●画蛇添足直：Draw a snake with feet added to it.
意：Ruin the effect by adding what is superfluous;
Doing something entirely unnecessary.
●火中取栗直：Pull chestnut out of the fire.
意：to be a cat’s paw for somebody;
use others as your cat’s paw
J
●借花献佛直：Present Buddha with borrowed flowers.
意：Borrow something to make a gift of it.
●金玉其外直：rubbish coated in gold and jade
败絮其中意：Fair without, foul within
K
●靠山吃山，直：Those living on a mountain get their living from the mountain; Those
near靠水吃水the water live off the water.
意：Make full use of resources abundant in the localities.
●刻舟求剑直：Cut a mark on the gunwall of a moving boat to indicate where one’s
sword dropped into the water.
意：Take measures or act without reagard to changing circumstances.
●口蜜腹剑直：honey-mouthed but dagger-hearted;
with honey on one’s lips and murder in one’s heart
意：hypocritical and sinister;
hypocritical and malignant
(这个人口蜜腹剑，十分阴险。
He is a sinister and ruthless man with honey on his lips and murder in his heart./ He is an evil man who has a mouth that praises and a hand that kills.)
●苦海无边，直：The sea of bitterness is boundless; repent and the shore is at hand.
回头是岸意：It is never too late to repent and mend one’s ways.
L
●(在我头上) 直：Piss and shit (over my shoulder).
拉屎撒尿意：Do whatever one pleases in a despotic manner (against me);
Ride roughshod over me.
●拉下马直：Pull somebody off the horse.
意：Pull somebody down from a powerful or high position.
●拉下水直：Pull somebody into the water;
Drag somebody into the mire or mud.
意：Get somebody involved in one’s scheme;
make an accomplice of;
corrupt
(被人用金钱美女拉下水Be ensnared and corrupted by money and women.)
●癞蛤蟆想直：Act like a toad lusting after a swan’s flesh.
吃天鹅肉意：crave for something one is not worthy of
N
●泥足巨人直：Colossus with clay feet
意：Strong in appearance but weak in nature;
outwardly strong but inwardly weak.。
