







闲时不烧香,急来抱佛脚 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to neglect preparations or duties in ordinary times, and only hastily seek help or make efforts when an urgent need or crisis arises; to cram at the last minute”. Literally, “In idle times, not burning incense; when urgent, hugging the Buddha's feet”.

Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →闲时不烧香,急来抱佛脚 (xián shí bù shāo xiāng , jí lái bào fó jiǎo) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to neglect preparations or duties in ordinary times, and only hastily seek help or make efforts when an urgent need or crisis arises; to cram at the last minute”.
闲时不烧香,急来抱佛脚 is pronounced xián shí bù shāo xiāng , jí lái bào fó jiǎo in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 闲时不烧香,急来抱佛脚 means “in idle times, not burning incense; when urgent, hugging the Buddha's feet”. It is used to mean “to neglect preparations or duties in ordinary times, and only hastily seek help or make efforts when an urgent need or crisis arises; to cram at the last minute”.
抱佛脚:拜佛。比喻平时不往来,遇有急难才去恳求。指平时没有准备,临时慌忙应付