LookupMandarin · 繁體 · English

ChineseCharactersMeanings inMandarin–English · CC-CEDICTSources ↗

DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

犬馬之勞

简犬马之劳 · 繁犬馬之勞

Mandarin · pinyin quǎn mǎ zhī láo

lit. the service of a dog or a horse (idiom)
fig. faithful service

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

犬: quǎn · dog; radical number 94
馬: Look up this written character
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
勞: Look up this written character
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
劳: láo · labor, toil, do manual work

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–3–1–2 · quan3 ma3 zhi1 lao2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character 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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) humble and faithful service to one's master (e.g. the emperor)

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

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