冷眼旁观 — Chinese idiom
冷眼旁观
lěng yǎn páng guān
Traditional: 冷眼旁觀
Meaning
- to observe with an indifferent attitude; to be a bystander (usually referring to someone who could get involved but chooses not to)
Character by character
- 冷lěngcold, cool; lonely
- 眼yǎneyelet, hole, opening
- 旁pángside; beside, close, nearby
- 观guānto observe, to spectate; appearance, view
Idioms sharing a character
- 冷嘲热讽 lěng cháo rè fěng
- 冷言冷语 lěng yán lěng yǔ
- 冷语冰人 lěng yǔ bīng rén
- 打入冷宫 dǎ rù lěng gōng
- 枕冷衾寒 zhěn lěng qīn hán
- 知冷知热 zhī lěng zhī rè
- 一板一眼 yī bǎn yī yǎn
- 一板三眼 yī bǎn sān yǎn
- 一眼看穿 yī yǎn kàn chuān
- 一饱眼福 yī bǎo yǎn fú
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.