窮鼠猫を噛む

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Japanese

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Kanji in this term
きゅう
Grade: S

Hyōgai
ねこ
Grade: S

Hyōgai
Alternative spelling
窮鼠猫を嚙む (kyūjitai)

Etymology

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Calque of Literary Chinese 窮鼠嚙狸 (qióngshǔ nièlí, literally a cornered rat will bite a cat), from the Discourses on Salt and Iron (鹽鐵論·詔聖盐铁论·诏圣). Note that the character () is replaced by in Japanese.

Proverb

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(きゅう)()(ねこ)() (kyūso neko o kamu

  1. a cornered rat will bite a cat, weak people will attack when cornered