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前门打虎，后门打狼

qián mén dǎ hǔ , hòu mén dǎ lángdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
to beat a tiger from the front door, only to have a wolf come in at the back (idiom) / fig. facing one problem after another
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-b8c186905dec3817. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

前門打虎，後門打狼 前门打虎，后门打狼 [qian2 men2 da3 hu3 , hou4 men2 da3 lang2] /to beat a tiger from the front door, only to have a wolf come in at the back (idiom); fig. facing one problem after another/

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: 前門打虎，後門打狼

  • 前
    qián

    front / forward / ahead / first / top (followed by a number) / future / ago / before / BC (e.g. 前293年) / former / formerly

  • 门
    mén

    gate / door / doorway / gateway / opening (CL:扇[shàn]) / valve / switch / other door-like or gate-like structure / way to do sth / knack / method / approach / family / household / lineage / (bound form) sect / school / faction (religious or academic) / (bound form) class / category / division / phylum / classifier for courses, fields of study, branches of technology, relatives by marriage, guns etc / (suffix) -gate (scandal)

    Mén

    surname Men

  • 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

  • 虎
    hǔ

    tiger / CL:隻|只[zhī]

  • 后
    hòu

    empress / queen / (archaic) monarch / ruler / back / behind / rear / afterwards / after / later / post-

    Hòu

    surname Hou

  • 门
    mén

    gate / door / doorway / gateway / opening (CL:扇[shàn]) / valve / switch / other door-like or gate-like structure / way to do sth / knack / method / approach / family / household / lineage / (bound form) sect / school / faction (religious or academic) / (bound form) class / category / division / phylum / classifier for courses, fields of study, branches of technology, relatives by marriage, guns etc / (suffix) -gate (scandal)

    Mén

    surname Men

  • 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

  • 狼

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.