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大祸临头

dà huò lín tóudictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
facing imminent catastrophe / calamity looms / all hell will break loose
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-0ecda20410b78b2a. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

大禍臨頭 大祸临头 [da4 huo4 lin2 tou2] /facing imminent catastrophe/calamity looms/all hell will break loose/

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.

Other forms in these source records: 大禍臨頭

  • 大
    dà

    big; large; great / older (than another person) / eldest (as in 大姐[dà jiě]) / greatly; freely; fully / (dialect) father / (dialect) uncle (father's brother)

    dài

    see 大夫[dài fu]

  • 祸
    huò

    disaster / misfortune / calamity

  • 临
    lín

    to face / to overlook / to arrive / to be (just) about to / just before

  • 头
    tóu

    head / hair style / the top / end / beginning or end / a stub / remnant / chief / boss / side / aspect / first / leading / classifier for pigs or livestock / CL:個|个[gè]

    tou

    suffix for nouns

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.