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變生肘腋

简变生肘腋 · 繁變生肘腋

Mandarin · pinyin biàn shēng zhǒu yè

lit. calamity in one's armpit (idiom); a major coup happening on one's doorstep
trouble or danger in one's own backyard

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Characters in this entry

變: Look up this written character
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
肘: zhǒu · the elbow; help a person shoulder a load
腋: yè · armpit
变: biàn · change, transform, alter; rebel

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–3–4 · bian4 sheng1 zhou3 ye4

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

bin3 sang1 zau2 jik6

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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) trouble is brewing close at hand

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

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