打狗還得看主人

简 打狗还得看主人 · 繁 打狗還得看主人
Mandarin · pinyin dǎ gǒu hái děi kàn zhǔ rén

Meanings

  1. lit. when one beats a dog, one must answer to its master (idiom)
  2. fig. before punishing sb, one should consider how that would affect others associated with him
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Characters in this entry

打
dǎ · strike, hit, beat; fight; attack
狗
gǒu · dog, Canis familiaris
還
hái · still, yet, also, besides
得
dé · obtain, get, gain, acquire
看
kàn · look, see; examine, scrutinize
主
zhǔ · master, chief owner; host; lord
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
还
hái · still, yet, also, besides
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–2–3–4–3–2 · da3 gou3 hai2 dei3 kan4 zhu3 ren2

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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.

打狗還得看主人 · find source passages ↗ · 打狗还得看主人 · find source passages ↗

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打狗還得看主人 · da3 gou3 hai2 dei3 kan4 zhu3 ren2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 44,829
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record打狗還得看主人 打狗还得看主人 [da3 gou3 hai2 dei3 kan4 zhu3 ren2] /lit. when one beats a dog, one must answer to its master (idiom)/fig. before punishing sb, one should consider how that would affect others associated with him/