窮鼠猫を噛む

Japanese

Kanji in this term
窮 鼠 猫 噛
きゅう
Grade: S 		そ
Hyōgai 		ねこ
Grade: S 		か
Hyōgai
Alternative spelling
窮鼠猫を嚙む (kyūjitai)

Etymology

Calque of Literary Chinese 窮鼠嚙狸 (qióngshǔ nièlí, literally “a cornered rat will bite a cat”), from the Discourses on Salt and Iron (鹽鐵論·詔聖 / 盐铁论·诏圣). Note that the character 狸 (lí) is replaced by 猫 in Japanese.

Proverb

窮(きゅう)鼠(そ)猫(ねこ)を噛(か)む • (kyūso neko o kamu) 

  1. a cornered rat will bite a cat, weak people will attack when cornered
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