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杀君马者道旁儿

shā jūn mǎ zhě dào páng érdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. bystanders killed the king's horse (idiom) (based on an ancient story in which people along the road cheered a horseman on as he galloped past, until the horse died of exhaustion) / fig. beware of becoming complacent when everyone is cheering you on
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-a7a3f1ad84954f42. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

殺君馬者道旁兒 杀君马者道旁儿 [sha1 jun1 ma3 zhe3 dao4 pang2 er2] /lit. bystanders killed the king's horse (idiom) (based on an ancient story in which people along the road cheered a horseman on as he galloped past, until the horse died of exhaustion)/fig. beware of becoming complacent when everyone is cheering you on/

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: 殺君馬者道旁兒

  • 杀
    shā

    to kill / to slay / to murder / to attack / to weaken / to reduce / (dialect) to smart / (used after a verb) extremely

  • 君
    jūn

    monarch / lord / gentleman / ruler

  • 马
    mǎ

    horse / CL:匹[pǐ] / horse or cavalry piece in Chinese chess / knight in Western chess

    Mǎ

    surname Ma / abbr. for Malaysia 馬來西亞|马来西亚[Mǎ lái xī yà]

  • 者
    zhě

    (after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ... / (after a noun) person involved in ... / -er / -ist / (used after a number or 後|后[hòu] or 前[qián] to refer to sth mentioned previously) / (used after a term, to mark a pause before defining the term) / (old) (used at the end of a command) / (old) this

  • 道
    dào

    road / path (CL:條|条[tiáo],股[gǔ]) / (bound form) way / reason / principle / (bound form) a skill / an art / a specialization / (Daoism) the Way / the Dao / to say (introducing a direct quotation, as in a novel) / (bound form) to express / to extend (polite words) / classifier for long thin things (rivers, cracks, shadows etc), barriers (walls, doors etc), questions (in an exam etc), commands, courses in a meal, steps in a process / (old) circuit (administrative division)

  • 旁
    páng

    one side / other / different / lateral component of a Chinese character (such as 刂[dāo], 亻[rén] etc)

  • 儿
    ér

    child / son

    r

    non-syllabic diminutive suffix / retroflex final

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.