created sense approved 山中无老虎，猴子称大王/山中無老虎，猴子稱大王 · shānzhōngwúlǎohǔhóuzichēngdàwáng · when the cat is away the mice will play — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"
山中无老虎，猴子称大王 / 山中無老虎，猴子稱大王
shānzhōngwúlǎohǔhóuzichēngdàwáng
when the cat is away the mice will play
(idiom) Literal meaning is "when there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey acts as king"; describes a situation where a lesser person takes power or a leadership role because a superior or more capable person is absent.
山 (literal) → 山 · shān · mountain 中 (literal) → 中 · zhōng · middle 无 (literal) → 无/無 · wú · to not have 老虎 (literal) → 老虎 · lǎohǔ · tiger ， (non_chinese) 猴子 (literal) → 猴子 · hóuzi · monkey 称 (literal) → 称/稱 · chēng · to claim 大王 (literal) → 大王 · dàwáng · king
Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition