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Chinese/Dictionary entry

打狗欺主

dǎ gǒu qī zhǔdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
to beat a dog and bully its owner / fig. to humiliate sb indirectly by bullying a subordinate
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-09a81765547b3470. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

打狗欺主 打狗欺主 [da3 gou3 qi1 zhu3] /to beat a dog and bully its owner/fig. to humiliate sb indirectly by bullying a subordinate/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

  • 打
    dá

    (loanword) dozen / Taiwan pr. [dǎ]

    dǎ

    to hit / to strike / to fight / (in many expressions) a semantically light transitive verb used with various objects to form expressions with a wide range of meanings, e.g. 打傘|打伞[dǎ sǎn] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[dǎ diàn huà] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[dǎ zhēn] "to get an injection" / (coll.) from / since

  • 狗
  • 欺
    qī

    to take unfair advantage of / to deceive / to cheat

  • 主
    zhǔ

    owner / master / host / individual or party concerned / God / Lord / main / to indicate or signify / trump card (in card games)

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.