騎虎難下

Chinese

		to ride (an animal or bike); to sit astride	tiger	disaster; distress; to scold disaster; distress; to scold; difficult (to...); problem; difficulty; difficult; not good	under; next; lower under; next; lower; below; underneath; down(wards); to go down; latter
trad. (騎虎難下)		騎	虎	難	下
simp. (骑虎难下)		骑	虎	难	下
Literally: “ride a tiger and find it difficult to dismount”.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): qíhǔnánxià

  (Zhuyin): ㄑㄧˊ ㄏㄨˇ ㄋㄢˊ ㄒㄧㄚˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ke⁴ fu² naan⁴ haa⁶

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: qíhǔnánxià
    • Zhuyin: ㄑㄧˊ ㄏㄨˇ ㄋㄢˊ ㄒㄧㄚˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: cíhǔnánsià
    • Wade–Giles: chʻi²-hu³-nan²-hsia⁴
    • Yale: chí-hǔ-nán-syà
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: chyihuunanshiah
    • Palladius: цихунанься (cixunanʹsja)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕʰi³⁵ xu²¹⁴⁻²¹ nän³⁵ ɕi̯ä⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: ke⁴ fu² naan⁴ haa⁶
    • Yale: kèh fú nàahn hah
    • Cantonese Pinyin: ke⁴ fu² naan⁴ haa⁶
    • Guangdong Romanization: ké⁴ fu² nan⁴ ha⁶
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /kʰɛː²¹ fuː³⁵ naːn²¹ haː²²/

Idiom

騎虎難下

1. (figurative) to get into a situation where both proceeding forward and backing down are difficult

Synonyms

• 進退兩難／进退两难 (jìntuìliǎngnán)
• 進退維谷／进退维谷 (jìntuìwéigǔ)