gun1 gun1 soeng1 wai6官官相衛官官相卫
Jyutpinggun1 gun1 soeng1 wai6
Yalegūn gūn sēung waih
Definition
Officials protecting and shielding one another from scrutiny or accountability.
colloquialpeopleother
How it's used
Originally describing corrupt government officials protecting their own, this idiom has evolved to describe any group or organization where members prioritize protecting their own reputation over accountability. It carries a strong sense of cynicism and frustration toward systemic corruption or nepotism. Use it when you want to highlight a lack of transparency or a culture of silence within an institution.
Examples
That group of people covers for each other, who would dare to complain?
Related words
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
