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不了了之

Mandarin · pinyin bù liǎo liǎo zhī

to settle a matter by leaving it unsettled
to end up with nothing definite

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Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
了: le · to finish; particle of completed action
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–3–1 · bu4 liao3 liao3 zhi1

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bat1 liu5 liu5 zi1

Cantonese word readings for 不了了之. 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

(idiomatic) to leave something unresolved

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

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