📖 Meaning
Feeling completely secure and fearless because one has backing, support, or resources to fall back on. It describes a person who acts boldly or recklessly, knowing that powerful protection shields them from consequences.
📜 Origin Story
From the Zuo Zhuan (Commentary of Zuo), Twenty-Sixth Year of Duke Xi (634 BCE). When Duke Xiao of Qi invaded the small state of Lu, Zhan Xi — brother of the renowned sage Liu Xia Hui — went to negotiate. Though Lu was utterly destitute, with "houses empty as hanging stone chimes and fields bare of green grass," Zhan Xi reminded Duke Xiao of the long-standing friendship between their states. Moved by this appeal, Duke Xiao withdrew his army. The original passage reads "何恃而不恐" (what do you rely on that you are not afraid?), which was later inverted into the idiom 有恃无恐.
💡 Example Usage
他仗着后台老板撑腰，对监管部门的调查有恃无恐，最终却难逃法网。
Relying on his backer's protection, he acted as though the regulators' investigation was nothing to fear — but in the end, he could not escape the law.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 有恃无恐
- Pinyin: yǒu shì wú kǒng
- Literal Translation: have, rely on, not, fear
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4