敬而远之 — Chinese idiom
敬而远之
jìng ér yuǎn zhī
Traditional: 敬而遠之
Meaning
- to show respect from a distance
- to remain at a respectful distance
Character by character
- 敬jìngto respect, to honor; respectfully
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 远yuǎndistant, remote, far; profound
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of following ph
Idioms sharing a character
- 敬惜字纸 jìng xī zì zhǐ
- 敬业乐群 jìng yè lè qún
- 敬老尊贤 jìng lǎo zūn xián
- 敬若神明 jìng ruò shén míng
- 敬贤礼士 jìng xián lǐ shì
- 相敬如宾 xiāng jìng rú bīn
- 肃然起敬 sù rán qǐ jìng
- 一哄而散 yī hōng ér sàn
- 一扫而空 yī sǎo ér kōng
- 一拥而入 yī yōng ér rù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.