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三天不打，上房揭瓦

sān tiān bù dǎ , shàng fáng jiē wǎdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
three days without a beating, and a child will scale the roof to rip the tiles (idiom) / spare the rod, spoil the child
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-b800219f4011432a. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

三天不打，上房揭瓦 三天不打，上房揭瓦 [san1 tian1 bu4 da3 , shang4 fang2 jie1 wa3] /three days without a beating, and a child will scale the roof to rip the tiles (idiom)/spare the rod, spoil the child/

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.

  • 三
    sān

    three / 3

    Sān

    surname San

  • 天
    tiān

    day / sky / heaven

  • 不
    bù

    no / not so / (bound form) not / un-

  • 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

  • 上
    shǎng

    used in 上聲|上声[shǎng shēng]

    shàng

    (bound form) up / upper / above / previous / first (of multiple parts) / to climb / to get onto / to go up / to attend (class or university) / (directional complement) up / (noun suffix) on / above

  • 房
    fáng

    house / room / CL:間|间[jiān] / branch of an extended family / classifier for family members (or concubines)

    Fáng

    surname Fang

  • 揭
    jiē

    to take the lid off / to expose / to unmask

    Jiē

    surname Jie

  • 瓦
    wǎ

    roof tile / abbr. for 瓦特[wǎ tè]

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.