贫无立锥

貧無立錐

pínwúlìzhuī

idiom

Meanings

1 so poor as to lack even enough land to stick an awl into
2 utterly destitute

Characters

Examples

他从小贫无立锥，靠拾荒为生。

Tā cóngxiǎo pínwúlìzhuī, kào shíhuāng wéi shēng.

From childhood he was utterly destitute, surviving by scavenging.

战乱之后，许多百姓贫无立锥。

Zhànluàn zhīhòu, xǔduō bǎixìng pínwúlìzhuī.

After the war, many common people were destitute, without even an inch of land.

Tips

history

Traced to 《汉书·食货志》: '富者田连阡伯，贫者亡立锥之地' — 'the rich own field after field, the poor have no spot even to plant an awl.' The image is brutal: an awl point is barely millimetres wide, yet the poor own less ground than that.

memory

锥 (zhuī) is an awl — a thin, pointed shoemaker's tool. If you can't find ground for even an awl tip, you own literally nothing.

Stroke Order

贫 pín

无 wú

立 lì

锥 zhuī