"tremble and obey" meaning in English

See tremble and obey in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: trembles and obeys [present, singular, third-person], trembling and obeying [participle, present], trembled and obeyed [participle, past], trembled and obeyed [past]
Etymology: Calque from Chinese 凜遵/凛遵 (lǐn zūn), a phrase historically used in Chinese imperial edicts. Etymology templates: {{calque|en|zh|-}} Calque from Chinese, {{zh-l|凜遵}} 凜遵/凛遵 (lǐn zūn) Head templates: {{en-verb|tremble<> and obey<>}} tremble and obey (third-person singular simple present trembles and obeys, present participle trembling and obeying, simple past and past participle trembled and obeyed)
  1. (idiomatic, chiefly China) To unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities, especially the Chinese government. Tags: China, idiomatic Translations (to unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities): totella kyselemättä (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-tremble_and_obey-en-verb-GAjjPv~a Categories (other): Chinese English Disambiguation of 'to unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities': 91 9
  2. (historical, China) Phrase promulgating a decree of the Chinese imperial government or the early British colonial administration in Hong Kong. Tags: China, historical
    Sense id: en-tremble_and_obey-en-verb-fhzapEvu Categories (other): Chinese English, English coordinated pairs, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 40 60 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 37 63 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 38 62 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 32 68 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 28 72
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          "ref": "1949, Bertrand Russell, Authority and the Individual:",
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          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2005, James McGregor, One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, page 153:",
          "text": "Never “tremble and obey” if doing so will damage or destroy your business in China.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Stephen Vines, “Those who think the Umbrella Movement failed need to learn a little history”, in Hong Kong Free Press:",
          "text": "... the previous colonial government and the current tremble-and-obey government have helped foster the myth of a historically politically apathetic and selfish society ...",
          "type": "quote"
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        "To unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities, especially the Chinese government."
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        "(idiomatic, chiefly China) To unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities, especially the Chinese government."
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        {
          "_dis1": "91 9",
          "code": "fi",
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          "sense": "to unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities",
          "word": "totella kyselemättä"
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          "_dis": "28 72",
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          "ref": "1857, Thomas Wade, “Translation of a Paper forwarded by His Excellency the Governor of Macao”, in J. C. Parkinson, editor, Government Examinations, page 124:",
          "text": "Let the good tremble and obey; let them not act so as to have hereafter to repent. A special Proclamation.",
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        "Phrase promulgating a decree of the Chinese imperial government or the early British colonial administration in Hong Kong."
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        "(historical, China) Phrase promulgating a decree of the Chinese imperial government or the early British colonial administration in Hong Kong."
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  "word": "tremble and obey"
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          "text": "The ordinary voter ... feels himself their humble subject, whose duty is, as the Chinese used to say, to “tremble and obey”.",
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        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, James McGregor, One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, page 153:",
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        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Stephen Vines, “Those who think the Umbrella Movement failed need to learn a little history”, in Hong Kong Free Press:",
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      ],
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        "(idiomatic, chiefly China) To unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities, especially the Chinese government."
      ],
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        "China",
        "idiomatic"
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          "text": "Let the good tremble and obey; let them not act so as to have hereafter to repent. A special Proclamation.",
          "type": "quote"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Phrase promulgating a decree of the Chinese imperial government or the early British colonial administration in Hong Kong."
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to unthinkingly obey or pander to authorities",
      "word": "totella kyselemättä"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tremble and obey"
}

Download raw JSONL data for tremble and obey meaning in English (3.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.

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