DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
捨不得孩子套不住狼
简 舍不得孩子套不住狼 · 繁 捨不得孩子套不住狼Mandarin · pinyin shě bù de hái zi tào bù zhù láng
Meanings
- one who is not prepared to risk his child will never catch the wolf (proverb)
- (fig.) one who is unwilling to take risks will not achieve great things
Characters in this entry
- 捨
- Look up this written character
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 得
- dé · obtain, get, gain, acquire
- 孩
- hái · baby, child; children
- 子
- zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
- 套
- tào · case, cover, wrapper, envelope
- 住
- zhù · reside, live at, dwell, lodge; stop
- 狼
- láng · wolf
- 舍
- shě · shè · house, dwelling; dwell, reside
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
3–4–5–2–5–4–4–4–2 · she3 bu4 de5 hai2 zi5 tao4 bu4 zhu4 lang2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
8character links
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
phrase
- (idiomatic) something must be sacrificed in order to make an obtainment
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack