绵里藏针 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. a needle concealed in silk floss
• fig. ruthless character behind a gentle appearance
• a wolf in sheep's clothing
• an iron fist in a velvet glove

Character by character

• 绵miáncontinuous, unbroken; cotten, silk; soft, downy
• 里lǐunit of distance equal to 0.5km; village; lane
• 藏cángto conceal, to hide; to hoard, to store
• 针zhēnneedle, pin, tack; acupuncture

Idioms sharing a character

• 绵绵瓜瓞 mián mián guā dié
• 缠绵悱恻 chán mián fěi cè
• 连绵不绝 lián mián bù jué
• 一日千里 yī rì qiān lǐ
• 千里迢迢 qiān lǐ tiáo tiáo
• 千里鹅毛 qiān lǐ é máo
• 吃里扒外 chī lǐ pá wài
• 字里行间 zì lǐ háng jiān
• 心里有数 xīn lǐ yǒu shù
• 忙里偷闲 máng lǐ tōu xián

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