张牙舞爪 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to bare fangs and brandish claws ; to make threatening gestures

Character by character

• 张zhāngto display; to expand, to open; to stretch; a shee
• 牙yátooth, molar; fang, tusk; serrated
• 舞wǔto dance; to brandish
• 爪zhǎoclaws, nails, talons

Idioms sharing a character

• 做张做势 zuò zhāng zuò shì
• 做张做智 zuò zhāng zuò zhì
• 剑拔弩张 jiàn bá nǔ zhāng
• 嚣张气焰 xiāo zhāng qì yàn
• 大张挞伐 dà zhāng tà fá
• 大张旗鼓 dà zhāng qí gǔ
• 大张声势 dà zhāng shēng shì
• 张三李四 Zhāng Sān Lǐ Sì
• 张冠李戴 Zhāng guān Lǐ dài
• 张口结舌 zhāng kǒu jié shé

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