What 眈 means
It means to stare intently, with attention fixed on a target.
The early Chinese character dictionary Shuowen Jiezi says “look near, aim far.”
What does the phrase add?
It gives the gaze a purpose. The Book of Changes, a Chinese classic, pairs 虎视眈眈 with a tiger’s desire to pursue. In Chinese, the phrase means watching for an opening; Japanese 眈々 and Korean 호시탐탐 carry the same intent.
Literary and specialized; clearest inside a fixed phrase.
Alone, it may read as obscure.
Don't confuse it with
1Combination ideas
1Watching keenly for a chance to act.
Questions people ask
1Why does 眈 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 眈
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 7708, then Alt+X to get 眈.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “cjk unified ideograph-7708”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 7708, then Enter or Space.
HTML
眈CSS
\7708Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
眈
HTML hex
眈
CSS content
content: "\7708";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E7%9C%88
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.