honey in the mouth, a sword in the belly
Proverb warning that sweet words can hide malicious intent; equivalent to 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' or 'fair words butter no parsnips'.
He's the type who has honey in his mouth but a sword in his belly, so you'd better be careful.
Do you know the proverb 'honey in the mouth, a sword in the belly'?
Similar proverb meaning 'a sword hidden in a smile'; both warn of hidden malice, but 口に蜜あり腹に剣あり emphasizes sweet talk while 笑中に刀あり emphasizes a smiling face.
Refers to feigning innocence or friendliness; less explicitly about malicious intent and more about hiding one's true nature.
Standard kanji form of the proverb.
Variant using 有り instead of あり; less common but still encountered.
A Japanese rendering of a classical Chinese proverb, likely from the Tang dynasty text '意林' (Yilin), which says '口有蜜腹有剣'. The expression was naturalized into Japanese using the classical literary form あり.