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空手套白狼

Mandarin · pinyin kōng shǒu tào bái láng

(coll.) to make big gains without putting in effort or resources

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Characters in this entry

空: kōng · empty, hollow, bare, deserted
手: shǒu · hand
套: tào · case, cover, wrapper, envelope
白: bái · white; pure, unblemished; bright
狼: láng · wolf

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–2–2 · kong1 shou3 tao4 bai2 lang2

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

verb

(neologism) to swindle without any investment; to gain a lot for nothing

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

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