口蜜腹剑 / 口蜜腹劍

kǒu​mì​fù​jiàn

hypocritical and malicious

honeyed words but a sword in the belly; describes someone who is outwardly kind but inwardly sinister and treacherous

口 (literal) → 口 · kǒu · mouth 蜜 (literal) → 蜜 · mì · sweet; honeyed 腹 (literal) → 腹 · fù · abdomen 剑 (literal) → 剑/劍 · jiàn · sword

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

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM