Chinese symbol for “cower”
畏缩
wèi suō
Traditional: 畏縮
to cower; to flinch; to quail; to recoil
The closest CC-CEDICT match for cower is 畏缩 (wèi suō), defined as: to cower; to flinch; to quail; to recoil.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “cower”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 退缩 (退縮) | tuì suō | to shrink back; to cower |
| 蜷缩 (蜷縮) | quán suō | to curl up; to huddle |
| 抖缩 (抖縮) | dǒu suō | to cower; to tremble |
| 拉稀 | lā xī | (coll.) to have diarrhea; to shrink back |
| 瑟缩 (瑟縮) | sè suō | to curl up shivering (from cold); timid and trembling (in fear) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 畏缩.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 畏惧 (畏懼) | wèi jù | to fear; to dread |
| 敬畏 | jìng wèi | to revere |
| 不畏 | bù wèi | unafraid; to defy |
| 大无畏 (大無畏) | dà wú wèi | utterly fearless |
| 畏罪 | wèi zuì | to dread punishment; afraid of being arrested for a crime |
| 缩短 (縮短) | suō duǎn | to shorten; to reduce; to curtail |
| 缩小 (縮小) | suō xiǎo | to reduce; to decrease; to shrink |
| 压缩 (壓縮) | yā suō | to compress; compression |
See also: Japanese symbol for “cower”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.