欲加之罪，何患无辞 / 欲加之罪，何患無辭

yù​jiā​zhī​zuì​hé​huàn​wú​cí

give a dog a bad name and hang him

Literally meaning "if you want to condemn someone, why worry about having no pretext?"; used to say that if you are determined to frame someone, you can always find or invent an excuse to do so.

欲 (literal) → 欲 · yù · to want 加 (literal) → 加 · jiā · to apply 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · it 罪 (literal) → 罪 · zuì · crime ， (non_chinese) 何 (literal) → 何 · hé · why 患 (literal) → 患 · huàn · to worry 无 (literal) → 无/無 · wú · to not have 辞 (literal) → 辞/辭 · cí · word

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

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM