呼牛呼馬

简 呼牛呼马 · 繁 呼牛呼馬
Mandarin · pinyin hū niú hū mǎ

Meanings

  1. to call sth a cow or a horse (idiom); it doesn't matter what you call it
  2. 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)
馬
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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

1–2–1–3 · hu1 niu2 hu1 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.

呼牛呼馬 · find source passages ↗ · 呼牛呼马 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fu1 ngau4 fu1 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 呼牛呼馬. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

呼牛呼馬 · hu1 niu2 hu1 ma3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 21,148
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record呼牛呼馬 呼牛呼马 [hu1 niu2 hu1 ma3] /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./