认贼作父 — Chinese idiom
认贼作父
rèn zéi zuò fù
Traditional: 認賊作父
Meaning
- lit. to acknowledge the bandit as one's father ; fig. a complete betrayal
- to sell oneself to the enemy
Character by character
- 认rènto know, to recognize, to understand
- 贼zéithief, traitor; cunning, sly
- 作zuòto make; to write, to compose; to act, to perform
- 父fùfather, dad
Idioms sharing a character
- 六亲不认 liù qīn bù rèn
- 认鸡作凤 rèn jī zuò fèng
- 乱臣贼子 luàn chén zéi zǐ
- 做贼心虚 zuò zéi xīn xū
- 擒贼擒王 qín zéi qín wáng
- 民贼独夫 mín zéi dú fū
- 独夫民贼 dú fū mín zéi
- 贼喊捉贼 zéi hǎn zhuō zéi
- 贼眉鼠眼 zéi méi shǔ yǎn
- 关门捉贼 guān mén zhuō zéi
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.