悔不当初 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to regret one's past deeds

Character by character

• 悔huǐto regret, to repent, to show remorse
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 当dāngappropriate, timely; to act, to serve; the sound o
• 初chūbeginning, initial, primary

Idioms sharing a character

• 后悔莫及 hòu huǐ mò jí
• 悔之无及 huǐ zhī wú jí
• 悔恨交加 huǐ hèn jiāo jiā
• 悔过自新 huǐ guò zì xīn
• 愧悔无地 kuì huǐ wú dì
• 死不改悔 sǐ bù gǎi huǐ
• 追悔莫及 zhuī huǐ mò jí
• 一丁不识 yī dīng bù shí
• 一尘不染 yī chén bù rǎn
• 一字不差 yī zì bù chà

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