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千里送鵝毛

简千里送鹅毛 · 繁千里送鵝毛

Mandarin · pinyin qiān lǐ sòng é máo

goose feather sent from afar (idiom); a trifling present with a weighty thought behind it

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Characters in this entry

千: qiān · thousand; many, numerous; very; (Cant.) a cheater, swindler
里: lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166
送: sòng · see off, send off; dispatch, give
鵝: Look up this written character
毛: máo · hair, fur, feathers; coarse
鹅: é · goose

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–2–2 · qian1 li3 song4 e2 mao2

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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.

千里送鵝毛 · find source passages ↗ · 千里送鹅毛 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cin1 lei5 sung3 ngo4 mou4

Cantonese word readings for 千里送鵝毛. 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) a trifling present with a weighty thought behind it

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

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