養虎傷身

简 养虎伤身 · 繁 養虎傷身
Mandarin · pinyin yǎng hǔ shāng shēn

Meanings

  1. Rear a tiger and court disaster. (idiom); fig. if you're too lenient with sb, he will damage you later
  2. to cherish a snake in one's bosom
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

養
yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
虎
hǔ · tiger; brave, fierce; surname
傷
shāng · wound, injury; fall ill from
身
shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
养
yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
伤
shāng · wound, injury; fall ill from
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–3–1–1 · yang3 hu3 shang1 shen1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

6character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

養虎傷身 · find source passages ↗ · 养虎伤身 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

joeng5 fu2 soeng1 san1

Cantonese word readings for 養虎傷身. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

養虎傷身 · yang3 hu3 shang1 shen1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 120,123
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record養虎傷身 养虎伤身 [yang3 hu3 shang1 shen1] /Rear a tiger and court disaster. (idiom); fig. if you're too lenient with sb, he will damage you later/to cherish a snake in one's bosom/