掩耳盗铃 — Chinese idiom
掩耳盗铃
yǎn ěr dào líng
Traditional: 掩耳盜鈴
Meaning
- lit. to cover one's ears whilst stealing a bell
- to deceive oneself
- to bury one's head in the sand
Character by character
- 掩yǎnto cover up (with a hand); to ambush, to conceal;
- 耳ěrear; to hear, to hear of; handle
- 盗dàoto rob, to steal; thief, bandit
- 铃língsmall bell
Idioms sharing a character
- 掩人耳目 yǎn rén ěr mù
- 掩面而泣 yǎn miàn ér qì
- 东掩西遮 dōng yǎn xī zhē
- 瑕不掩瑜 xiá bù yǎn yú
- 遮遮掩掩 zhē zhē yǎn yǎn
- 不堪入耳 bù kān rù ěr
- 俯首帖耳 fǔ shǒu tiē ěr
- 充耳不闻 chōng ěr bù wén
- 如雷贯耳 rú léi guàn ěr
- 忠言逆耳 zhōng yán nì ěr
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.