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投桃報李

简 投桃报李 · 繁 投桃報李
Mandarin · pinyin tóu táo bào lǐ

Meanings

  1. toss a peach, get back a plum (idiom); to return a favor
  2. to exchange gifts
  3. Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.
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Characters in this entry

投
tóu · throw, cast, fling, pitch; jump
桃
táo · peach; marriage; surname
報
Look up this written character
李
lǐ · plum; judge; surname
报
bào · report, tell, announce
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Entries containing 投桃報李 ↗Words written with 投 ↗Words written with 桃 ↗Words written with 報 ↗Words written with 李 ↗Words written with 报 ↗

Mandarin tones

2–2–4–3 · tou2 tao2 bao4 li3

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Connected dictionary

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

tau4 tou4 bou3 lei5

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.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) to return a favor; to exchange gifts; you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

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

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

投桃報李 · tou2 tao2 bao4 li3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 45,554
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record投桃報李 投桃报李 [tou2 tao2 bao4 li3] /toss a peach, get back a plum (idiom); to return a favor/to exchange gifts/Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours./