伶牙利爪ling ya li zhaolíng yá lì zhǎobe smart; be very capable
? 只是寶玉身邊一干人都是～的，那里插的下手去？ (《紅樓夢》 286)?…but his other attendants were too smart to allow her to put herself forward.
?Unfortunately the little group of boy-servants who had accompanied him into the garden guarded their privileges with tooth and claw and were careful to allow no toehold to an ambitious outsider. |