软刀子 / 軟刀子

ruǎn​dāo​zi

underhanded tactics

(metaphor) invisible or subtle methods used to harm or torture someone; underhanded or devious tactics that hurt people without them realizing it right away

软 (literal) → 软/軟 · ruǎn · non-forceful 刀子 (literal) → 刀子 · dāo​zi · knife

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

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM