晚節不保

简 晚节不保 · 繁 晚節不保
Mandarin · pinyin wǎn jié bù bǎo

Meanings

  1. (idiom) to tarnish one's reputation in later life; to lose prestige at a later stage
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Characters in this entry

晚
wǎn · night, evening; late
節
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不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
保
bǎo · protect, safeguard, defend, care
节
jié · knot, node, joint; section
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–2–4–3 · wan3 jie2 bu4 bao3

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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.

晚節不保 · find source passages ↗ · 晚节不保 · find source passages ↗

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晚節不保 · wan3 jie2 bu4 bao3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 53,635
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record晚節不保 晚节不保 [wan3 jie2 bu4 bao3] /(idiom) to tarnish one's reputation in later life; to lose prestige at a later stage/