"天に向かって唾を吐く" meaning in All languages combined

See 天に向かって唾を吐く on Wiktionary

Phrase [Japanese]

Forms: 天に向かって唾を吐く [canonical] (ruby: (てん), (), (つば), ()), ten ni mukatte tsuba o haku [romanization]
Etymology: From the Buddhist scripture Sutra of Forty-two Chapters:「悪人害賢者、猶仰天而唾、唾不汚天、還汚己身」 ("When evil people harm the wise, it's like spitting at heaven - the spit doesn't soil heaven, but falls back on oneself"). Head templates: {{ja-pos|idiom|てん に むかって つば を はく}} 天(てん)に向(む)かって唾(つば)を吐(は)く • (ten ni mukatte tsuba o haku)
  1. An act that backfires, bringing harm to oneself while failing to harm the target, especially when disparaging superiors or sacred things; to shoot oneself in the foot Wikipedia link: ja:天に向かって唾を吐く Tags: idiomatic Related terms: 天唾 (tentsuba) (ruby: 天唾(てんつば)) [abbreviation], ブーメラン (būmeran) (english: boomerang) [slang]
{
  "etymology_text": "From the Buddhist scripture Sutra of Forty-two Chapters:「悪人害賢者、猶仰天而唾、唾不汚天、還汚己身」 (\"When evil people harm the wise, it's like spitting at heaven - the spit doesn't soil heaven, but falls back on oneself\").",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "天に向かって唾を吐く",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "天",
          "てん"
        ],
        [
          "向",
          "む"
        ],
        [
          "唾",
          "つば"
        ],
        [
          "吐",
          "は"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ten ni mukatte tsuba o haku",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "idiom",
        "2": "てん に むかって つば を はく"
      },
      "expansion": "天(てん)に向(む)かって唾(つば)を吐(は)く • (ten ni mukatte tsuba o haku)",
      "name": "ja-pos"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese links with redundant alt parameters",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese terms with 4 kanji",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese terms with multiple readings",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese terms with redundant sortkeys",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An act that backfires, bringing harm to oneself while failing to harm the target, especially when disparaging superiors or sacred things; to shoot oneself in the foot"
      ],
      "id": "en-天に向かって唾を吐く-ja-phrase-GS--I4vL",
      "links": [
        [
          "shoot oneself in the foot",
          "shoot oneself in the foot"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "roman": "tentsuba",
          "ruby": [
            [
              "天唾",
              "てんつば"
            ]
          ],
          "tags": [
            "abbreviation"
          ],
          "word": "天唾"
        },
        {
          "english": "boomerang",
          "roman": "būmeran",
          "tags": [
            "slang"
          ],
          "word": "ブーメラン"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "ja:天に向かって唾を吐く"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "天に向かって唾を吐く"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From the Buddhist scripture Sutra of Forty-two Chapters:「悪人害賢者、猶仰天而唾、唾不汚天、還汚己身」 (\"When evil people harm the wise, it's like spitting at heaven - the spit doesn't soil heaven, but falls back on oneself\").",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "天に向かって唾を吐く",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "天",
          "てん"
        ],
        [
          "向",
          "む"
        ],
        [
          "唾",
          "つば"
        ],
        [
          "吐",
          "は"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ten ni mukatte tsuba o haku",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "idiom",
        "2": "てん に むかって つば を はく"
      },
      "expansion": "天(てん)に向(む)かって唾(つば)を吐(は)く • (ten ni mukatte tsuba o haku)",
      "name": "ja-pos"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "roman": "tentsuba",
      "ruby": [
        [
          "天唾",
          "てんつば"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "abbreviation"
      ],
      "word": "天唾"
    },
    {
      "english": "boomerang",
      "roman": "būmeran",
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
      "word": "ブーメラン"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Japanese entries with incorrect language header",
        "Japanese idioms",
        "Japanese lemmas",
        "Japanese links with redundant alt parameters",
        "Japanese links with redundant wikilinks",
        "Japanese terms spelled with first grade kanji",
        "Japanese terms spelled with secondary school kanji",
        "Japanese terms spelled with third grade kanji",
        "Japanese terms spelled with を",
        "Japanese terms with 4 kanji",
        "Japanese terms with multiple readings",
        "Japanese terms with redundant sortkeys",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An act that backfires, bringing harm to oneself while failing to harm the target, especially when disparaging superiors or sacred things; to shoot oneself in the foot"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "shoot oneself in the foot",
          "shoot oneself in the foot"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "ja:天に向かって唾を吐く"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "天に向かって唾を吐く"
}

Download raw JSONL data for 天に向かって唾を吐く meaning in All languages combined (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (99a4ed9 and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.