变本加厉 — Chinese idiom
变本加厉
biàn běn jiā lì
Traditional: 變本加厲
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.