DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

兔死狗烹

Mandarin · pinyin tù sǐ gǒu pēng

(lit.) when the rabbit is dead, the hunting dogs are cooked (idiom)
(fig.) to discard or eliminate someone once they are no longer useful

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

兔: tù · rabbit, hare
死: sǐ · die; dead; death
狗: gǒu · dog, Canis familiaris
烹: pēng · boil, cook; quick fry, stir fry

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–3–3–1 · tu4 si3 gou3 peng1

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.

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.

兔死狗烹 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

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 get rid of somebody once they have served their purpose

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

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