DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
斷袖之癖
简 断袖之癖 · 繁 斷袖之癖Mandarin · pinyin duàn xiù zhī pǐ
Meanings
- lit. cut sleeve (idiom); fig. euphemism for homosexuality, originating from History of Western Han 漢書: emperor Han Aidi (real name Liu Xin) was in bed with his lover Dong Xian, and had to attend a court audience that morning. Not wishing to awaken Dong Xian, who was sleeping with his head resting on the emperor's long robe sleeve, Aidi used a knife to cut off the lower half of his sleeve.
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Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.
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Mandarin tones
4–4–1–3 · duan4 xiu4 zhi1 pi3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
dyun6 zau6 zi1 pik1
Cantonese word readings for 斷袖之癖. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack
dyun6 zau6 zi1 pik1
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
- (figurative) male homosexuality
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack