大限臨頭

简 大限临头 · 繁 大限臨頭
Mandarin · pinyin dà xiàn lín tóu

Meanings

  1. facing the end (idiom); at the end of one's life
  2. with one foot in the grave
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Characters in this entry

大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
限
xiàn · boundary, limit, line
臨
Look up this written character
頭
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
临
lín · draw near, approach; descend
头
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–2–2 · da4 xian4 lin2 tou2

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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.

大限臨頭 · find source passages ↗ · 大限临头 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 haan6 lam4 tau4

Cantonese word readings for 大限臨頭. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

大限臨頭 · da4 xian4 lin2 tou2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 28,556
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record大限臨頭 大限临头 [da4 xian4 lin2 tou2] /facing the end (idiom); at the end of one's life/with one foot in the grave/