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芒刺在背

Mandarin · pinyin máng cì zài bèi

feeling brambles and thorns in one's back (idiom)
uneasy and nervous
to be on pins and needles

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Characters in this entry

芒: máng · Miscanthus sinensis
刺: cì · stab; prick, irritate; prod
在: zài · be at, in, on; consist in, rest
背: bèi · back; back side; behind; betray

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–4 · mang2 ci4 zai4 bei4

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mong4 ci3 zoi6 bui3

Cantonese word readings for 芒刺在背. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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

(idiomatic) to be jittery; to be on pins and needles

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

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