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死去活來

简死去活来 · 繁死去活來

Mandarin · pinyin sǐ qù huó lái

to hover between life and death (idiom)
to suffer terribly
within an inch of one's life

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Characters in this entry

死: sǐ · die; dead; death
去: qù · go away, leave, depart
活: huó · live, exist, survive; lively
來: lái · come, coming; return, returning
来: lái · come, coming; return, returning

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–2–2 · si3 qu4 huo2 lai2

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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.

死去活來 · find source passages ↗ · 死去活来 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sei2 heoi3 wut6 loi4

Cantonese word readings for 死去活來. 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 be devastated; to suffer terribly; to be within an inch of one's life

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

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