吐苦水

Mandarin · pinyin tǔ kǔ shuǐ

Meanings

  1. to have bitter digestive fluids rising to the mouth
  2. fig. to complain bitterly
  3. to pour out one's sufferings
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Characters in this entry

吐
tǔ · vomit, spew out, cough up
苦
kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
水
shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–3 · tu3 ku3 shui3

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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

tou3 fu2 seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 吐苦水. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

吐苦水 · tu3 ku3 shui3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 20,385
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record吐苦水 吐苦水 [tu3 ku3 shui3] /to have bitter digestive fluids rising to the mouth/fig. to complain bitterly/to pour out one's sufferings/