做好做歹

Mandarin · pinyin zuò hǎo zuò dǎi

Meanings

  1. to persuade using all possible arguments (idiom); to act good cop and bad cop in turn
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Characters in this entry

做
zuò · work, make; act
好
hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
歹
dǎi · bad, vicious, depraved, wicked
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–3 · zuo4 hao3 zuo4 dai3

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zou6 hou2 zou6 daai2

Cantonese word readings for 做好做歹. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

做好做歹 · zuo4 hao3 zuo4 dai3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 9,188
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record做好做歹 做好做歹 [zuo4 hao3 zuo4 dai3] /to persuade using all possible arguments (idiom); to act good cop and bad cop in turn/