撈女

简 捞女 · 繁 撈女
Cantonese · source Jyutpinglou1 neoi2

Meanings

  1. a female gangster or swindler; a woman who makes a living out of criminal activities; a derogatory term used by people in Hong Kong to address a woman who migrated from other provinces (namely Mainlanders from China); a prostitute
About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

Full entryShow on map

Reading & tones

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Tone and syllable differences from Unihan

  • 撈 has the reading lou1 here; Unihan’s citation reading is laau4. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 撈 lou1 as its own entry.
  • 女 is read neoi2 here; Unihan’s citation reading is neoi5. Same syllable, different tone across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 女 neoi2 as its own entry.

Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).

Same syllable, six tones

neoineoi1—neoi2—neoi3—neoi4—女neoi5femaleneoi6—

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

Explore words with this reading ↗

Written characters

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:

  • 撈女 lāo nǚ CC-CEDICT · Mandarin(slang) gold digger; woman who pursues men for money

A separate source entry, shown for comparison. The same characters can carry different senses in Mandarin and in Cantonese; zimai does not align these senses.

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: lao1 nv3. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lou1 neoi2

Cantonese word readings for 撈女. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. (slang, derogatory) gold digger

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

CC-Canto · Pleco Inc. · edition 2017-02-02
Source line 8,937 · Original publisher · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Edition & transformations

Mandarin comparison: CC-CEDICT 2026-10-13, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source reading differences and six-tone sets: computed by zimai from Unihan 17.0.0 (Unicode License V3).

Exact source record & identity撈女 捞女 [lao1 nv3] {lou1 neoi2} /a female gangster or swindler; a woman who makes a living out of criminal activities; a derogatory term used by people in Hong Kong to address a woman who migrated from other provinces (namely Mainlanders from China); a prostitute/

SHA-256: 4e53a72f1a7371b02b777d14401875c81a86b90d2ee57feb143ec9068ceb86b6