狼狈
láng bèi · HSK 7
in a difficult situation
🐺 狼 wolf + 狈 its legless legend-beast partner = stuck in a sorry mess
Etymology: legend pairs 狼 (wolf) with 狈, a beast whose front legs are too short to walk alone, so it rides the wolf. Split them apart and both flounder — hence 狼狈, awkward and helpless in a tough spot.
狼 — dog radical 犭 + 良 (liáng, phonetic)
狼 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 犭 (a form of 犬 'dog') signals that the character refers to a canine animal, while the right side 良 supplies the sound, originally close to 'láng'. Together they specify 'wolf', distinguishing it from other dog-like creatures.