DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

久攻不下

Mandarin · pinyin jiǔ gōng bù xià

to attack for a long time without success

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Characters in this entry

久: jiǔ · long time (ago); time passage, grow late
攻: gōng · attack, assault; criticize
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–4–4 · jiu3 gong1 bu4 xia4

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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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