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下手

Mandarin · pinyin xià shǒu

to start
to put one's hand to
to set about
the seat to the right of the main guest

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Characters in this entry

下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
手: shǒu · hand

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3 · xia4 shou3

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

haa6 sau2

Cantonese word readings for 下手. 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.

noun

player whose turn comes next
(colloquial) assistant; aide
(Puxian Min) subordinate, underling
(Xianyou Puxian Min) someone from a younger generation (one's children or younger siblings)
(alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 下首 (xiàshǒu, “side of lower priority or less honour”)

verb

to start doing something; to take action; to go about something
to commit a crime/to initiate an ambush/sneak attack

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

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