一犬虚に吠ゆれば万犬実を伝う
いっけんきょにほゆればばんけんじつをつたう
Meanings
- Expression one dog barks at a shadow, and a hundred bark at the sound; it takes one person to start a rumor for the masses to tell it as the truth; gossip travels faster than the truth (literally: when one dog barks at nothing, ten thousand dogs will pass it on as fact)
Kanji
- 一 one. Read as イチ.
- 犬 dog. Read as ケン.
- 虚 void. Read as キョ.
- 吠 bark; howl; cry
- 万 all. Read as バン.
- 実 real. Read as ジツ.
- 伝 transmit. Read as つたう.