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呼牛作馬

简呼牛作马 · 繁呼牛作馬

Mandarin · pinyin hū niú zuò mǎ

to call sth a cow or a horse (idiom); it doesn't matter what you call it
Insult me if you want, I don't care what you call me.

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Characters in this entry

呼: hū · breathe sigh, exhale; call, shout
牛: niú · cow, ox, bull; Kangxi radical 93; 9th lunar mansion, determinative star β Capricorni (Dabih)
作: zuò · make; work; compose, write; act, perform
馬: Look up this written character
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3 · hu1 niu2 zuo4 ma3

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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.

呼牛作馬 · find source passages ↗ · 呼牛作马 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fu1 ngau4 zok3 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 呼牛作馬. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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