变本加厉 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. change to more severe ; to become more intense (esp. of shortcoming)
• to aggravate
• to intensify

Character by character

• 变biànto change, to transform, to alter; rebel
• 本běnroot, origin, source; basis
• 加jiāto add to, to increase, to augment
• 厉lìwhetstone; to grind, to sharpen, to whet

Idioms sharing a character

• 一成不变 yī chéng bù biàn
• 不识时变 bù shí shí biàn
• 亘古不变 gèn gǔ bù biàn
• 俗随时变 sú suí shí biàn
• 千变万轸 qiān biàn wàn zhěn
• 民变峰起 mín biàn fēng qǐ
• 瞬息万变 shùn xī wàn biàn
• 穷则思变 qióng zé sī biàn
• 节哀顺变 jié āi shùn biàn
• 处变不惊 chǔ biàn bù jīng

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.