色厉内荏 — Chinese idiom
色厉内荏
sè lì nèi rěn
Traditional: 色厲內荏
Meaning
- lit. show strength while weak inside ; appearing fierce while cowardly at heart
- a sheep in wolf's clothing
Character by character
- 色sècolor, tint, hue, shade; beauty, form; sex
- 厉lìwhetstone; to grind, to sharpen, to whet
- 内nèiinside
- 荏rěnherb, mint; soft, pliable
Idioms sharing a character
- 一路货色 yī lù huò sè
- 不动声色 bù dòng shēng sè
- 五光十色 wǔ guāng shí sè
- 五色缤纷 wǔ sè bīn fēn
- 仙姿玉色 xiān zī yù sè
- 各色各样 gè sè gè yàng
- 喜形于色 xǐ xíng yú sè
- 国色天香 guó sè tiān xiāng
- 大惊失色 dà jīng shī sè
- 天香国色 tiān xiāng guó sè
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.