白老鼠

xiongluong
 January 28, 2015, 09:10 PM posted in I Have a Question

What does it mean when someone says "把自己当白老鼠/小老鼠？“ To experiment on yourself?

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podster
 January 28, 2015, 09:58 PM

@xingluong, Yes,把自己当白老鼠means figuratively to be a lab rat, or experimental subject. It is something that someone who does not want to be an "early adopter" of some new medicine or therapy might say. I suppose the idiomatic equivalent in English would be " I don't want to be a guinea pig."

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xiongluong
 February 03, 2015, 09:25 AM

Thanks for that!