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未雨绸缪 (wèi yǔ chóu móu) — to take precautions beforehand; to prepare for a rainy day

Definition

A chengyu meaning to repair the house before the rain — to plan ahead and prepare for trouble before it arrives. More literary than the plain verb 准备.

idiom
to take precautions beforehandto prepare for a rainy day

Examples

  • 未雨绸缪，。
    Wǒ men yīng gāi wèi yǔ chóu móu, tí qián zuò hǎo yìng jí jì huà.
    We should take precautions and make emergency plans in advance.
  • 未雨绸缪，。
    Gōng sī wèi yǔ chóu móu, chǔ bèi le zú gòu de zī jīn yìng duì shì chǎng bō dòng.
    The company prepared for a rainy day by reserving enough funds to handle market fluctuations.
  • 未雨绸缪，。
    Tā zǒng xǐ huan wèi yǔ chóu móu, kǎo shì qián yí gè yuè jiù kāi shǐ fù xí.
    He always likes to take precautions — he starts reviewing a month before the exam.

Origin

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape 未 shows a tree with extra branches spreading above its trunk, like lush, overlapping limbs.

Open 未 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape 雨 is an old picture of a cloud with rain drops falling from it; the top line was added later.

Open 雨 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 綢; 绸 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糸糸mìsilk
Sound part声符shēngfú
周
周zhōu綢chóu
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 綢, the left part 糸 is silk and the right part 周 is used for the sound; the simplified 绸 is a later shorthand.

Open 绸 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 缪 →
Appears in
Idioms & Set Phrases

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