打擦邊球

简 打擦边球 · 繁 打擦邊球
Mandarin · pinyin dǎ cā biān qiú

Meanings

  1. to bend the rules
  2. to skirt around the issue
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Characters in this entry

打
dǎ · strike, hit, beat; fight; attack
擦
cā · wipe, scrub, rub, scour; brush
邊
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球
qiú · ball, sphere, globe; round
边
biān · edge, margin, side, border
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–1–1–2 · da3 ca1 bian1 qiu2

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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.

打擦邊球 · find source passages ↗ · 打擦边球 · find source passages ↗

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