名草有主

Mandarin · pinyin míng cǎo yǒu zhǔ

Meanings

  1. (idiom) (humorous) (of a man) already taken (male counterpart of 名花有主 míng huā yǒu zhǔ)
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Characters in this entry

名
míng · name, rank, title, position
草
cǎo · grass, straw, thatch, herbs
有
yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
主
zhǔ · master, chief owner; host; lord
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–3 · ming2 cao3 you3 zhu3

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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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名草有主 · ming2 cao3 you3 zhu3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 20,317
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record名草有主 名草有主 [ming2 cao3 you3 zhu3] /(idiom) (humorous) (of a man) already taken (male counterpart of 名花有主[ming2 hua1 you3 zhu3])/