DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

報喜不報憂

简报喜不报忧 · 繁報喜不報憂

Mandarin · pinyin bào xǐ bù bào yōu

to report only the good news, not the bad news
to hold back unpleasant news
to sweep bad news under the carpet

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Characters in this entry

報: Look up this written character
喜: xǐ · like, love, enjoy; joyful thing
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
憂: Look up this written character
报: bào · report, tell, announce
忧: yōu · sad, grieved; grief, melancholy

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–4–1 · bao4 xi3 bu4 bao4 you1

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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.

報喜不報憂 · find source passages ↗ · 报喜不报忧 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bou3 hei2 bat1 bou3 jau1

Cantonese word readings for 報喜不報憂. 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 report the good news but not the bad news; to report only what is good while withholding what is unpleasant

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

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