借花敬佛

Cantonese · source Jyutpingze3 faa1 ging3 fat6

Meanings

  1. borrow a flower and offer it to the Buddha, which means taking something given by others as a present for somebody else
About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Same syllable, six tones

faa花faa1flowerfaa2—化faa3to make intofaa4—faa5—faa6—
fat弗fat1notfat2—fat3—fat4—fat5—罚fat6to punish

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

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Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: jie4 hua1 jing4 fo2. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ze3 faa1 ging3 fat6

Cantonese word readings for 借花敬佛. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (chiefly Cantonese) to offer something that one has received (as a gift, favour, etc.) to someone else

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

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CC-Canto · Pleco Inc. · edition 2017-02-02
Source line 1,679 · Original publisher · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Edition & transformations
Exact source record & identity借花敬佛 借花敬佛 [jie4 hua1 jing4 fo2] {ze3 faa1 ging3 fat6} /borrow a flower and offer it to the Buddha, which means taking something given by others as a present for somebody else/

SHA-256: d30910de65d7fe436f1bcc76aabb772cb53d0124184c0fc0258645997ee60cb4