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人困馬乏

简人困马乏 · 繁人困馬乏

Mandarin · pinyin rén kùn mǎ fá

riders tired and horses weary (idiom)
worn out
exhausted
spent
fatigued

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Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
困: kùn · to surround, besiege; to be surrounded; difficult; hexagram ䷮
馬: Look up this written character
乏: fá · lack; poor
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–3–2 · ren2 kun4 ma3 fa2

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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.

人困馬乏 · find source passages ↗ · 人困马乏 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jan4 kwan3 maa5 fat6

Cantonese word readings for 人困馬乏. 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 be completely exhausted; to be worn out and spent (especially of a group)

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

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