偷香竊玉

简 偷香窃玉 · 繁 偷香竊玉
Mandarin · pinyin tōu xiāng qiè yù

Meanings

  1. lit. stolen scent, pilfered jade (idiom); philandering
  2. secret illicit sex
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

偷
tōu · to steal, burglar, thief
香
xiāng · fragrant, sweet-smelling; incense; Kangxi radical 186
竊
Look up this written character
玉
yù · jade, precious stone, gem
窃
qiè · secretly, stealthily; steal; thief
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · tou1 xiang1 qie4 yu4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

tau1 hoeng1 sit3 juk6

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

  1. (idiomatic) love affair; philandering, secret illicit sex

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

偷香竊玉 · tou1 xiang1 qie4 yu4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 9,484
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record偷香竊玉 偷香窃玉 [tou1 xiang1 qie4 yu4] /lit. stolen scent, pilfered jade (idiom); philandering/secret illicit sex/