猫哭耗子 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• the cat weeps for the dead mouse ; hypocritical pretence of condolence
• crocodile tears

Character by character

• 猫māocat
• 哭kūto weep, to cry, to wail
• 耗hàoto consume, to use up; to squander, to waste
• 子zison, child; seed, egg; fruit; small thing

Idioms sharing a character

• 照猫画虎 zhào māo huà hǔ
• 猫哭老鼠 māo kū lǎo shǔ
• 阿猫阿狗 ā māo ā gǒu
• 同声一哭 tóng shēng yī kū
• 哭笑不得 kū xiào bù dé
• 嚎啕大哭 háo táo dà kū
• 悲歌当哭 bēi gē dàng kū
• 鬼哭狼嚎 guǐ kū láng háo
• 狗拿耗子 gǒu ná hào zi
• 乱臣贼子 luàn chén zéi zǐ

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