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按下葫蘆浮起瓢

简按下葫芦浮起瓢 · 繁按下葫蘆浮起瓢

Mandarin · pinyin àn xià hú lú fú qǐ piáo

solve one problem only to find another cropping up

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Characters in this entry

按: àn · put hand on, press down with hand
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
葫: hú · bottle-gourd
蘆: Look up this written character
浮: fú · to float, drift, waft; to exceed; superfluous
起: qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
瓢: piáo · ladle made from dried gourd
芦: lú · rushes, reeds

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–2–2–2–3–2 · an4 xia4 hu2 lu2 fu2 qi3 piao2

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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.

按下葫蘆浮起瓢 · find source passages ↗ · 按下葫芦浮起瓢 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to solve one problem only to find another cropping up

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

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