忙里偷闲

máng lǐ tōu xián

to snatch a moment of leisure

Character by character

忙máng
busy

里lǐ
within

偷tōu
steal

闲xián
leisure

他忙里偷闲，去公园散了会儿步。

He snatched a moment from his busy day for a walk in the park.

Tone: neutral.

A cosy phrase; 偷 just means sneak.

Learn it in context

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