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束手无策

shù shǒu wú cè

HSK 3.0 level 7-9 4-character word Traditional 束手無策

束手无策 (shù shǒu wú cè) means "lit. to have one's hands bound and be unable to do anything about it (idiom); fig. helpless in the face of a crisis". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was not on the old six-level HSK list.

What 束手无策 means

1. lit. to have one's hands bound and be unable to do anything about it (idiom); fig. helpless in the face of a crisis

The characters in 束手无策

• 束shùto bind; bunch; bundle
• 手shǒuhand; (formal) to hold; person engaged in certain types of work
• 无wúnot to have; no; none
• 策cèpolicy; plan; scheme

Example sentences

• 当我听到这个消息时, 我束手无策。
  Dāng wǒ tīngdào zhège xiāoxi shí, wǒ shùshǒuwúcè.
  I was at my wit's end when I heard the news.

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read shù shǒu wú cè correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.