草船借箭 in English cao3 chuan2 jie4 jian4 Meaning

Meanings

  • literally (word for word) using straw boats to borrow arrows (idiomatic expression, from 三國演義|三国演义[San1 guo2 Yan3 yi4])
  • metaphorically to use others' manpower and resources for one's own ends

Simplified Characters

草 船 借 箭

Traditional Characters

草 船 借 箭

Pinyin

cao3 chuan2 jie4 jian4

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

草cao3variant of 草[cao3] 船chuan2variant of 船[chuan2] 借jie4to lend 箭jian4arrow