LookupMandarin · 繁體 · English

ChineseCharactersMeanings inMandarin–English · CC-CEDICTSources ↗

DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

畏縮不前

简畏缩不前 · 繁畏縮不前

Mandarin · pinyin wèi suō bù qián

to shrink back in fear (idiom); too cowardly to advance

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

畏: wèi · fear, dread, awe, reverence
縮: Look up this written character
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
前: qián · in front, forward; preceding
缩: suō · contract, draw in, reduce

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–1–4–2 · wei4 suo1 bu4 qian2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

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) to hesitate to press forward; to recoil in fear

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack