前 车 之 覆，后 车 之 鉴

qián chē zhī fù , hòu chē zhī jiàndictionary entry

lit. the cart in front overturns, a warning to the following cart (idiom); fig. draw lesson from the failure of one's predecessor / learn from past mistake / once bitten twice shy

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-c2a46c3fcf793721. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

前車之覆，後車之鑒 前车之覆，后车之鉴 [qian2 che1 zhi1 fu4 , hou4 che1 zhi1 jian4] /lit. the cart in front overturns, a warning to the following cart (idiom); fig. draw lesson from the failure of one's predecessor/learn from past mistake/once bitten twice shy/

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: 前車之覆，後車之鑒

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.