暴戾恣睢

Mandarin · pinyin bào lì zì suī

Meanings

  1. (idiom) cruel; ruthless; tyrannical
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Characters in this entry

暴
bào · violent, brutal, tyrannical
戾
lì · perverse, recalcitrant, rebellious
恣
zì · indulge oneself, unrestrained
睢
suī · gaze at, stare at; uninhibited
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–1 · bao4 li4 zi4 sui1

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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.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (literary) extremely cruel and despotic

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

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