绵里藏针 — Chinese idiom
绵里藏针
mián lǐ cáng zhēn
Traditional: 綿裡藏針
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.