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大打出手

Mandarin · pinyin dà dǎ chū shǒu

to come to blows
to start a fight
(derived from the term for a type of theatrical fight scene, 打出手 dǎ chū shǒu)

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Characters in this entry

大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
打: dǎ · strike, hit, beat; fight; attack
出: chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
手: shǒu · hand

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–1–3 · da4 da3 chu1 shou3

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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 Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 daa2 ceot1 sau2

Cantonese word readings for 大打出手. 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 fight or attack violently

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

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