dǎ cǎo jīng shé
Traditional: 打草驚蛇
打草惊蛇 (dǎ cǎo jīng shé) is a Chinese word meaning “lit. beat the grass to scare the snake (idiom); fig. to inadvertently alert an enemy; to punish sb as a warning to others”.
Meanings
- 1lit. beat the grass to scare the snake (idiom)
- 2fig. to inadvertently alert an enemy
- 3to punish sb as a warning to others
Characters in 打草惊蛇
Related words
打(loanword) dozen打a semantically light, transitive verb that is combined with various grammatical objects to form compound verbs and verb-object phrases with a diverse range of meanings (e.g. 打傘|打伞[da3 san3] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[da3 dian4 hua4] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[da3 zhen1] "to get an injection", 打手套[da3 shou3 tao4] "to knit gloves", 打氣|打气[da3 qi4] "to inflate")打电话to make a telephone call打算to plan打开to open打扰to disturb惊喜nice surprise惊讶amazed打赌to bet打败to defeat吃惊to be startled打架to fight