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虎毒不食子

Mandarin · pinyin hǔ dú bù shí zǐ

a tiger, though cruel, will not devour its cubs (idiom)
even wild beasts look after their young

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Characters in this entry

虎: hǔ · tiger; brave, fierce; surname
毒: dú · poison, venom; poisonous
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
食: shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–4–2–3 · hu3 du2 bu4 shi2 zi3

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fu2 duk6 bat1 sik6 zi2

Cantonese word readings for 虎毒不食子. 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) A person, no matter how vicious they are, will not harm their own children.

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

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