無毒不丈夫 wú dú bù zhàng fu

a real man must be ruthless; harsh to succeed

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency Unknown

Definitions

  1. 1. no poison, no great man (idiom); A great man has to be ruthless.

Characters

Character Meaning
無 wú
not; no; not to have
毒 dú HSK 5
poison; poisonous; to poison
不 bù HSK 1
not; no; (negative prefix)
丈 zhàng HSK 2
husband; measure of length, ten Chinese feet (3.3 m)
夫 fu HSK 2
husband; man; manual worker