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倚老賣老

简倚老卖老 · 繁倚老賣老

Mandarin · pinyin yǐ lǎo mài lǎo

(idiom) to flaunt one's seniority; to rely on one's age or length of experience to control or belittle others

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Characters in this entry

倚: yǐ · rely on, depend on; lean heavily
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
賣: Look up this written character
卖: mài · sell; betray; show off

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4–3 · yi3 lao3 mai4 lao3

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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.

倚老賣老 · find source passages ↗ · 倚老卖老 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ji2 lou5 maai6 lou5

Cantonese word readings for 倚老賣老. 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

(derogatory) to rely on one's seniority or old age to look down on others or do things

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

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