倒懸之危

简 倒悬之危 · 繁 倒懸之危
Mandarin · pinyin dào xuán zhī wēi

Meanings

  1. lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
  2. dire straits
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Characters in this entry

倒
dào · fall over; lie down; take turns
懸
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之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
危
wēi · dangerous, precarious; high; 12th lunar mansion, determinative star α Aquarii (Sadalmelik)
悬
xuán · hang, suspend, hoist; be hung
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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–1 · dao4 xuan2 zhi1 wei1

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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.

倒懸之危 · find source passages ↗ · 倒悬之危 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

dou3 jyun4 zi1 ngai4

Cantonese word readings for 倒懸之危. 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

  1. (idiomatic) critical juncture; the brink of destruction; a danger which puts one in dire straits

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

倒懸之危 · dao4 xuan2 zhi1 wei1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 8,660
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record倒懸之危 倒悬之危 [dao4 xuan2 zhi1 wei1] /lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation/dire straits/