DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

打蛇不死，反受其害

Mandarin · pinyin dǎ shé bù sǐ , fǎn shòu qí hài

(proverb) if you deal with a threat but fail to eliminate it, it may come back to harm you

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

打: dǎ · strike, hit, beat; fight; attack
蛇: shé · snake
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
死: sǐ · die; dead; death
反: fǎn · reverse, opposite, contrary, anti
受: shòu · receive, accept, get; bear, stand
其: qí · his, her, its, their; that
害: hài · injure, harm; destroy, kill

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

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

8character 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.

打蛇不死，反受其害 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗