King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “cowering”

畏畏缩缩
wèi wèi suō suō
Traditional: 畏畏縮縮
cowering; cringing

The closest CC-CEDICT match for cowering is 畏畏缩缩 (wèi wèi suō suō), defined as: cowering; cringing.

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

畏 wèi
fear, dread, awe, reverence
radical 102 ⽥ · 9 strokes
畏
畏 wèi
fear, dread, awe, reverence
radical 102 ⽥ · 9 strokes
缩 suō
to withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
radical 120 ⽷ · 14 strokes
缩
缩 suō
to withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
radical 120 ⽷ · 14 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 畏畏缩缩.

WordPinyinMeaning
畏惧 (畏懼)wèi jùto fear; to dread
敬畏jìng wèito revere
不畏bù wèiunafraid; to defy
畏缩 (畏縮)wèi suōto cower; to flinch; to quail; to recoil
大无畏 (大無畏)dà wú wèiutterly fearless
畏罪wèi zuìto dread punishment; afraid of being arrested for a crime
缩短 (縮短)suō duǎnto shorten; to reduce; to curtail
缩小 (縮小)suō xiǎoto reduce; to decrease; to shrink
压缩 (壓縮)yā suōto compress; compression

See also: Japanese symbol for “cowering”.

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.