马屁拍在马脚上。

He chose to kiss up to someone, but stepped on a landmine instead.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 马屁 mǎpì
  1. horse hindquarters
  2. flattery
  3. boot-licking
2 拍 pāi
  1. to pat
  2. to clap
  3. to slap
  4. to swat
  5. to take (a photo)
  6. to shoot (a film)
  7. racket (sports)
  8. beat (music)
3 在 zài
  1. to exist; to be alive
  2. (of sb or sth) to be (located) at
  3. (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress)
4 马脚 mǎjiǎo
  1. sth one wishes to conceal
  2. the cat (as in "let the cat out of the bag")
=5 上 shǎng used in 上声 shǎngshēng
=5 上 shàng
  1. (bound form) up; upper; above; previous
  2. first (of multiple parts)
  3. to climb; to get onto; to go up
  4. to attend (class or university)
  5. (directional complement) up
  6. (noun suffix) on; above