杯弓蛇影 — Chinese idiom
杯弓蛇影
bēi gōng shé yǐng
Meaning
- lit. to see a bow reflected in a cup as a snake ; fig. unnecessary suspicions
- overly fearful
Character by character
- 杯bēicup, glass; measure word for liquids
- 弓gōngbow; curved, arched
- 蛇shésnake
- 影yǐngshadow; image, reflection; photograph
Idioms sharing a character
- 好酒贪杯 hào jiǔ tān bēi
- 推杯换盏 tuī bēi huàn zhǎn
- 杯水车薪 bēi shuǐ chē xīn
- 杯盘狼藉 bēi pán láng jí
- 杯酒解怨 bēi jiǔ jiě yuàn
- 杯酒言欢 bēi jiǔ yán huān
- 左右开弓 zuǒ yòu kāi gōng
- 惊弓之鸟 jīng gōng zhī niǎo
- 鸟尽弓藏 niǎo jìn gōng cáng
- 佛口蛇心 fó kǒu shé xīn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.