DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

不甘人後

简不甘人后 · 繁不甘人後

Mandarin · pinyin bù gān rén hòu

(idiom) not want to be outdone
not content to lag behind

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Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
甘: gān · sweetness; sweet, tasty
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
後: hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–2–4 · bu4 gan1 ren2 hou4

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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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