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老驥伏櫪

简老骥伏枥 · 繁老驥伏櫪

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo jì fú lì

lit. an old steed in the stable still aspires to gallop 1000 miles (idiom); fig. aged person with great aspirations

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Characters in this entry

老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
驥: Look up this written character
伏: fú · crouch, crawl, lie hidden, conceal
櫪: Look up this written character
骥: jì · thoroughbred horse; refined and
枥: lì · type of oak; stable

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–2–4 · lao3 ji4 fu2 li4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

老驥伏櫪 · find source passages ↗ · 老骥伏枥 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lou5 kei3 fuk6 lik1

Cantonese word readings for 老驥伏櫪. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(figurative) an aged person with great aspirations

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

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