一馬勺壞一鍋

简 一马勺坏一锅 · 繁 一馬勺壞一鍋
Mandarin · pinyin yī mǎ sháo huài yī guō

Meanings

  1. one ladle (of sth bad) spoils the (whole) pot (idiom)
  2. one bad apple spoils the barrel
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Characters in this entry

一
yī · one; a, an; alone
馬
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勺
sháo · spoon, ladle; unit of volume
壞
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鍋
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马
mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
坏
huài · rotten, spoilt, bad, broken down
锅
guō · cooking-pot, saucepan
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3–2–4–1–1 · yi1 ma3 shao2 huai4 yi1 guo1

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一馬勺壞一鍋 · find source passages ↗ · 一马勺坏一锅 · find source passages ↗

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一馬勺壞一鍋 · yi1 ma3 shao2 huai4 yi1 guo1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 1,011
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record一馬勺壞一鍋 一马勺坏一锅 [yi1 ma3 shao2 huai4 yi1 guo1] /one ladle (of sth bad) spoils the (whole) pot (idiom)/one bad apple spoils the barrel/