措手不及

cuò shǒu bù jí

caught unprepared

Character by character

措cuò
arrange

手shǒu
hands

不bù
not

及jí
in time

这个消息让我们措手不及。

The news caught us completely off guard.

Tone: neutral.

Often 让…措手不及 or 打…一个措手不及.

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This idiom and thousands more are in Learn Chinese with Bao, with audio, pinyin and drills that make them stick.