打铁

打鐵

dǎtiě

verb #33,243

Meanings

1 to forge iron
2 to do blacksmithing
3 (basketball slang) to brick a shot — i.e. miss with the ball clanging off the rim

Characters

to hit, to strike

Examples

村口有个老人在打铁。

Cūnkǒu yǒu gè lǎorén zài dǎtiě.

There's an old man forging iron at the entrance to the village.

趁热打铁，我们赶紧把合同签了。

Chèn rè dǎtiě, wǒmen gǎnjǐn bǎ hétong qiānle.

Strike while the iron is hot — let's hurry and sign the contract.

他今晚一直在打铁，三投零中。

Tā jīnwǎn yìzhí zài dǎtiě, sān tóu líng zhòng.

He's been bricking shots all night, zero for three.

Tips

culture

The chengyu 趁热打铁 (chèn rè dǎtiě, 'strike while the iron is hot') is the most common way you'll meet 打铁 in modern Chinese — a direct counterpart to the English idiom. The basketball-slang sense (missing the rim with a metallic 'clang') is recent and informal, common in NBA commentary and gaming chats.

memory

Picture a blacksmith hammering hot iron — 打 (hit) + 铁 (iron). The basketball slang reuses that image: a shot 'hammering' off the rim instead of swishing through the net.

Stroke Order

打 dǎ

铁 tiě