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DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

窮鼠嚙狸

简 穷鼠啮狸 · 繁 窮鼠嚙狸
Mandarin · pinyin qióng shǔ niè lí

Meanings

  1. a desperate rat will bite the fox (idiom); the smallest worm will turn being trodden on
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Characters in this entry

窮
Look up this written character
鼠
shǔ · rat, mouse; Kangxi radical 208
嚙
Look up this written character
狸
lí · fox
穷
qióng · poor, destitute, impoverished
啮
niè · bite, gnaw
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Entries containing 窮鼠嚙狸 ↗Words written with 窮 ↗Words written with 鼠 ↗Words written with 嚙 ↗Words written with 狸 ↗Words written with 穷 ↗Words written with 啮 ↗

Mandarin tones

2–3–4–2 · qiong2 shu3 nie4 li2

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Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.
Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

kung4 syu2 jit6 lei4

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

窮鼠嚙狸 · qiong2 shu3 nie4 li2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 82,461
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record窮鼠嚙狸 穷鼠啮狸 [qiong2 shu3 nie4 li2] /a desperate rat will bite the fox (idiom); the smallest worm will turn being trodden on/