兔子不吃窩邊草
简 兔子不吃窝边草 · 繁 兔子不吃窩邊草Meanings
- (lit.) a rabbit never eats the grass beside its own burrow (saying)
- (fig.) even a scoundrel does not do harm in his immediate neighborhood
Characters in this entry
- 兔
- tù · rabbit, hare
- 子
- zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 吃
- chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
- 窩
- Look up this written character
- 邊
- Look up this written character
- 草
- cǎo · grass, straw, thatch, herbs
- 窝
- wō · nest; cave, den; hiding place
- 边
- biān · edge, margin, side, border
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4–5–4–1–1–1–3 · tu4 zi5 bu4 chi1 wo1 bian1 cao3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
兔子不吃窩邊草 · find source passages ↗ · 兔子不吃窝边草 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
tou3 zi2 bat1 hek3 wo1 bin1 cou2
Cantonese word readings for 兔子不吃窩邊草. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- don't shit where you eat; don't dip your pen in company ink
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack