谈虎色变 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• (lit.) to turn pale at the mention of a tiger
• (fig.) to be terrified at the thought (of it)

Character by character

• 谈tánto talk, to chat; conversation; surname
• 虎hǔtiger; brave, fierce; surname
• 色sècolor, tint, hue, shade; beauty, form; sex
• 变biànto change, to transform, to alter; rebel

Idioms sharing a character

• 促膝谈心 cù xī tán xīn
• 奇谈怪论 qí tán guài lùn
• 娓娓而谈 wěi wěi ér tán
• 混为一谈 hùn wéi yī tán
• 无稽之谈 wú jī zhī tán
• 无话不谈 wú huà bù tán
• 纸上谈兵 zhǐ shàng tán bīng
• 老生常谈 lǎo shēng cháng tán
• 街谈巷议 jiē tán xiàng yì
• 言谈林薮 yán tán lín sǒu

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