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相持不下

Mandarin · pinyin xiāng chí bù xià

Meanings

  1. at a stalemate
  2. deadlocked
  3. in unrelenting mutual opposition
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Characters in this entry

相
xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
持
chí · sustain, support; hold, grasp
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
下
xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Entries containing 相持不下 ↗Words written with 相 ↗Words written with 持 ↗Words written with 不 ↗Words written with 下 ↗

Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · xiang1 chi2 bu4 xia4

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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

soeng1 ci4 bat1 haa6

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 be locked in a stalemate; neither side is winning or yielding in a standoff

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

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