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拖油瓶

Mandarin · pinyin tuō yóu píng

(derog.) (of a woman) to bring one's children into a second marriage
children by a previous marriage

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Characters in this entry

拖: tuō · drag, tow, haul; delay, prolong
油: yóu · oil, fat, grease, lard; paints
瓶: píng · jug, pitcher, vase, jar, bottle

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2 · tuo1 you2 ping2

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

to1 jau4 peng4

Cantonese word readings for 拖油瓶. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

(originally Wu) children from the previous marriage of a woman who is about to remarry

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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