Chinese symbol for “pester”

死缠烂打

sǐ chán làn dǎ

Traditional: 死纏爛打

(coll.) to pester; to harass

The closest CC-CEDICT match for pester is 死缠烂打 (sǐ chán làn dǎ), defined as: (coll.) to pester; to harass.

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

死 sǐ

dead; death; impassable, inflexible

radical 78 ⽍ · 6 strokes

缠 chán

to wrap, to entangle; to involve; to bother, to annoy

radical 120 ⽷ · 13 strokes

烂 làn

overcooked, overripe; rotten, spoiled

radical 86 ⽕ · 9 strokes

打 dǎ

to attack, to beat, to hit, to strike

radical 64 ⼿ · 5 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “pester”

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
磨	mó	to rub; to grind
蘑菇	mó gu	mushroom; to pester
缠绕 (纏繞)	chán rào	twisting; to twine
磨蹭	mó ceng	to rub lightly; to move slowly; to dawdle; to dillydally
厮缠 (廝纏)	sī chán	to pester

Related words

Other words that share a character with 死缠烂打.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
死亡	sǐ wáng	to die; death
杀死 (殺死)	shā sǐ	to kill
死刑	sǐ xíng	death penalty; capital punishment
死者	sǐ zhě	the dead; the deceased
死去	sǐ qù	to die
打死	dǎ sǐ	to kill; to beat to death
纠缠 (糾纏)	jiū chán	to be in a tangle; to nag
缠身 (纏身)	chán shēn	(of an illness, debt etc) to plague one; to bog one down; to preoccupy one
灿烂 (燦爛)	càn làn	to glitter; brilliant
打开 (打開)	dǎ kāi	to open; to show (a ticket)

See also: Japanese symbol for “pester”.

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.