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挑燈夜戰

简挑灯夜战 · 繁挑燈夜戰

Mandarin · pinyin tiǎo dēng yè zhàn

to raise a lantern and fight at night (idiom); fig. to work into the night
to burn the midnight oil

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Characters in this entry

挑: tiāo · a load carried on the shoulders; to carry
燈: dēng · lantern, lamp
夜: yè · night, dark; in night; by night
戰: Look up this written character
灯: dēng · lantern, lamp
战: zhàn · war, fighting, battle

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–4–4 · tiao3 deng1 ye4 zhan4

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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.

挑燈夜戰 · find source passages ↗ · 挑灯夜战 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tiu1 dang1 je6 zin3

Cantonese word readings for 挑燈夜戰. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to work late into the night; to burn the midnight oil

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

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