摇尾乞怜 — Chinese idiom
摇尾乞怜
yáo wěi qǐ lián
Traditional: 搖尾乞憐
Meaning
- lit. to behave like a dog wagging its tail, seeking its master's affection
- fig. to fawn on sb
- to bow and scrape
- to grovel
Character by character
- 摇yáoto rock, to shake; to swing, to wave
- 尾wěitail; extremity, end; back, rear
- 乞qǐto beg; to request
- 怜liánto pity, to sympathize with
Idioms sharing a character
- 地动山摇 dì dòng shān yáo
- 招摇撞骗 zhāo yáo zhuàng piàn
- 招摇过市 zhāo yáo guò shì
- 摇旗呐喊 yáo qí nà hǎn
- 摇头摆尾 yáo tóu bǎi wěi
- 东摇西摆 dōng yáo xī bǎi
- 风雨飘摇 fēng yǔ piāo yáo
- 吴头楚尾 Wú tóu Chǔ wěi
- 尾大不掉 wěi dà bù diào
- 彻头彻尾 chè tóu chè wěi
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.