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趁火打劫

chèn huǒ dǎ jiédictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
(lit.) to loot a burning house (idiom) / (fig.) to take advantage of sb's misfortune
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-7415948d34a851d2. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

趁火打劫 趁火打劫 [chen4 huo3 da3 jie2] /(lit.) to loot a burning house (idiom)/(fig.) to take advantage of sb's misfortune/

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.

  • 趁
    chèn

    to avail oneself of / to take advantage of

  • 火
    huǒ

    fire / urgent / ammunition / fiery or flaming / internal heat (Chinese medicine) / hot (popular) / classifier for military units (old) / Kangxi radical 86

    Huǒ

    surname Huo

  • 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

  • 劫
    jié

    to rob / to plunder / to seize by force / to coerce / calamity / abbr. for kalpa 劫波[jié bō]

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.