杀鸡儆猴 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• (lit.) to kill the chicken to warn the monkey
• (fig.) to punish an individual as an example to others

Character by character

• 杀shāto kill, to murder, to slaughter; to hurt
• 鸡jīchicken
• 儆jǐngto warn; warning
• 猴hóumonkey, ape; like a monkey

Idioms sharing a character

• 借刀杀人 jiè dāo shā rén
• 卸磨杀驴 xiè mò shā lǘ
• 问客杀鸡 wèn kè shā jī
• 格杀勿论 gé shā wù lùn
• 杀一儆百 shā yī jǐng bǎi
• 杀人如麻 shā rén rú má
• 杀人放火 shā rén fàng huǒ
• 杀人灭口 shā rén miè kǒu
• 杀人越货 shā rén yuè huò
• 杀彘教子 shā zhì jiào zǐ

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