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叫苦不迭

Mandarin · pinyin jiào kǔ bu dié

to complain without stopping (idiom); to bitch endlessly
incessant grievances

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Characters in this entry

叫: jiào · cry, shout; hail, greet, call
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
迭: dié · repeatedly, frequently

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–5–2 · jiao4 ku3 bu5 die2

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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 Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

giu3 fu2 bat1 dit6

Cantonese word readings for 叫苦不迭. 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) to complain of one's suffering endlessly

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

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