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拖人下水

Mandarin · pinyin tuō rén xià shuǐ

lit. to pull sb into the water
fig. to involve sb in a messy business
to get sb into trouble

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Characters in this entry

拖: tuō · drag, tow, haul; delay, prolong
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3 · tuo1 ren2 xia4 shui3

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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 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

to1 jan4 haa6 seoi2

Cantonese word readings for 拖人下水. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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