| 打蛇不死，反受其害 |
dǎ shé bù sǐ , fǎn shòu qí hài |
(proverb) if you deal with a threat but fail to eliminate it, it may come back to harm you |
| 打 |
dá |
(loanword) dozen / Taiwan pr. [da3] |
| 打 |
dǎ |
a semantically light, transitive verb that is combined with various grammatical objects to form compound verbs and verb-object phrases with a diverse range of meanings (e.g. 打伞 "to hold an umbrella", 打电话 "to make a phone call", 打针 "to get an injection", 打手套 "to knit gloves", 打气 "to inflate") / to hit; to strike / to fight / (coll.) from; since (as in 打那以后 "since then") |
| 蛇 |
shé |
variant of 蛇 |
| 蛇 |
shé |
snake / serpent / CL:条 |
| 蛇 |
yí |
used in 委蛇 |
| 不 |
bù |
no; not so / (bound form) not; un- |
| 死 |
sǐ |
to die / impassable / uncrossable / inflexible / rigid / extremely / damned |
| 反 |
fǎn |
contrary / in reverse / inside out or upside down / to reverse / to return / to oppose / opposite / against / anti- / to rebel / to use analogy / instead / abbr. for 反切 phonetic system |
| 受 |
shòu |
to receive / to accept / to suffer / subjected to / to bear / to stand / pleasant / (passive marker) / (LGBT) bottom |
| 其 |
qí |
his / her / its / their / that / such / it (refers to sth preceding it) |
| 害 |
hài |
to do harm to / to cause trouble to / harm / evil / calamity |