三天不打，上房揭瓦

sān​tiān​bù​dǎ​shàng​fáng​jiē​wǎ

spare the rod, spoil the child

(idiom) Three days without a beating and a child will climb onto the roof to rip off the tiles; describes a child who becomes unruly or mischievous if not disciplined regularly.

三 (literal) → 三 · sān · three 天 (literal) → 天 · tiān · day 不 (literal) → 不 · bù · not 打 (literal) → 打 · dǎ · to hit ， (non_chinese) 上 (literal) → 上 · shàng · to go up 房 (literal) → 房 · fáng · house 揭 (literal) → 揭 · jiē · to uncover 瓦 (literal) → 瓦 · wǎ · tile

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:58 PM