刀枪不入 (dāo qiāng bú rù) — invulnerable to weapons (literal); thick-skinne…

Definition

Idiom meaning literally 'swords and spears can't get in.' Today mostly used figuratively to describe someone thick-skinned and unfazed by criticism.

idiom

invulnerable to weapons (literal)thick-skinnedimpervious to criticism (figurative)

刀枪不入。
Xiǎo shuō lǐ de zhǔ jué liàn chéng le dāo qiāng bú rù de gōng fu.
The protagonist in the novel mastered the skill of being impervious to swords and spears.
刀枪不入，。
Tā yǐ jīng dāo qiāng bú rù le, bù guǎn bié rén zěn me shuō dōu bú zài hu.
He has become thick-skinned; no matter what others say, he doesn't care.
，刀枪不入，。
Miàn duì nà me duō pī píng, tā yī rán dāo qiāng bú rù, jì xù jiān chí zì jǐ de zuò fǎ.
Faced with so much criticism, he remained impervious and continued to stick to his own approach.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 刀 comes from a simple picture of a knife.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 槍; 枪 is its simplified writing.

木倉槍

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

倉

倉cāng槍qiāng

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 槍 pairs 木 (wood) with 倉 as a sound part; the simplified 枪 is a shorthand, and its right side is not the historical component.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

入 is drawn as an arrowhead, indicating 'to enter'.

Appears in