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小洞不補大洞吃苦

简小洞不补大洞吃苦 · 繁小洞不補大洞吃苦

Mandarin · pinyin xiǎo dòng bù bǔ dà dòng chī kǔ

A small hole not plugged will make you suffer a big hole (idiom); a stitch in time saves nine

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Characters in this entry

小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
洞: dòng · cave, grotto; ravine; hole
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
補: Look up this written character
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
补: bǔ · mend, patch, fix, repair, restore

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–4–3–4–4–1–3 · xiao3 dong4 bu4 bu3 da4 dong4 chi1 ku3

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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.

小洞不補大洞吃苦 · find source passages ↗ · 小洞不补大洞吃苦 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

siu2 dung6 bat1 bou2 daai6 dung6 hek3 fu2

Cantonese word readings for 小洞不補大洞吃苦. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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