tear down the east wall to repair the west wall -- to resort to a makeshift solutionmend the west wall by tearing down the east wallpulling down a wall in the east for bricks to build a wall in the westreinforce one place at the expense of anotherrob one's belly to cover one's backtry very hard to make ends meet
Related Translations:
挖东墙补西墙: digging [taking from] the eastern wall to repair the western one; keep up in one place at the expense of others
