染指垂涎

Mandarin · pinyin rǎn zhǐ chuí xián

Meanings

  1. lit. dirty finger, mouth watering (idiom); fig. greedy to seize sth
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Characters in this entry

染
rǎn · dye; be contagious; infect
指
zhǐ · finger, toe; point, indicate
垂
chuí · let down; suspend, hand; down
涎
xián · saliva
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–2–2 · ran3 zhi3 chui2 xian2

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jim5 zi2 seoi4 jin4

Cantonese word readings for 染指垂涎. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

染指垂涎 · ran3 zhi3 chui2 xian2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 57,004
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record染指垂涎 染指垂涎 [ran3 zhi3 chui2 xian2] /lit. dirty finger, mouth watering (idiom); fig. greedy to seize sth/