DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
一言既出,駟馬難追
简 一言既出,驷马难追 · 繁 一言既出,駟馬難追Mandarin · pinyin yī yán jì chū , sì mǎ nán zhuī
Meanings
- lit. once said, a team of horses cannot unsay it (idiom); a promise must be kept
Characters in this entry
- 一
- yī · one; a, an; alone
- 言
- yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
- 既
- jì · already; de facto; since; then
- 出
- chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
- 駟
- Look up this written character
- 馬
- Look up this written character
- 難
- Look up this written character
- 追
- zhuī · pursue, chase after; expel
- 驷
- sì · team of four horses; horses
- 马
- mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
- 难
- nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.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.
一言既出,駟馬難追 · find source passages ↗ · 一言既出,驷马难追 · find source passages ↗