







踏床啮鼻 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to make a preposterous argument”. To stubbornly quibble and argue against all reason, often to justify an indefensible position. Literally, “Step onto the bed and bite one's own nose”.
There once was a dispute between two individuals, A and B. During a fight, A bit off B's nose.
Both parties went to court, where the official questioned them about the incident.
A claimed that B had bitten off his own nose.
The official found this impossible and asked A how B could have done such a thing.
A replied that B could bite his own nose if he stood on the bed.

Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Choose character parts and animate their colors, together or in stroke order
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →踏床啮鼻 (tà chuáng niè bí) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to make a preposterous argument”.
踏床啮鼻 is pronounced tà chuáng niè bí in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 踏床啮鼻 means “Step onto the bed and bite one's own nose”. It is used to mean “to make a preposterous argument”.
踏床啮鼻 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
啮:咬。踏上床去咬自己的鼻子。形容强词夺理,力图狡辩