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騎虎難下

简骑虎难下 · 繁騎虎難下

Mandarin · pinyin qí hǔ nán xià

if you ride a tiger, it's hard to get off (idiom); fig. impossible to stop halfway

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Characters in this entry

騎: Look up this written character
虎: hǔ · tiger; brave, fierce; surname
難: Look up this written character
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
骑: qí · ride horseback; mount; cavalry
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–2–4 · qi2 hu3 nan2 xia4

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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.

騎虎難下 · find source passages ↗ · 骑虎难下 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ke4 fu2 naan4 haa6

Cantonese word readings for 騎虎難下. 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

(figurative) to get into a situation where both proceeding forward and backing down are difficult

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

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