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仰人鼻息

Mandarin · pinyin yǎng rén bí xī

to rely on others for the air one breathes (idiom); to depend on sb's whim for one's living

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Characters in this entry

仰: yǎng · raise the head to look; look up to, rely on, admire
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
鼻: bí · nose; first; Kangxi radical 209
息: xī · rest, put stop to, end, cease

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Mandarin tones

3–2–2–1 · yang3 ren2 bi2 xi1

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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

joeng5 jan4 bei6 sik1

Cantonese word readings for 仰人鼻息. 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 rely on others for one's living

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

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