扶不起的阿斗

Mandarin · pinyin fú bù qǐ de Ā dǒu

Meanings

  1. weak and inept person
  2. hopeless case
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Characters in this entry

扶
fú · support, help; protect; hold on
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
起
qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
的
de · possessive, adjectival suffix
阿
ā · prefix for people's names; used in transliteration
斗
dòu · dǒu · a dipper; unit of volume (ten 升 or litres); Kangxi radical 68; 8th lunar mansion, determinative star φ Sagittarii
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–4–3–5–1–3 · fu2 bu4 qi3 de5 A1 dou3

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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.

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扶不起的阿斗 · fu2 bu4 qi3 de5 A1 dou3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 45,148
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record扶不起的阿斗 扶不起的阿斗 [fu2 bu4 qi3 de5 A1 dou3] /weak and inept person/hopeless case/