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求之不得

Mandarin · pinyin qiú zhī bù dé

lit. seek but fail to get (idiom); fig. exactly what one’s been looking for

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Characters in this entry

求: qiú · seek; demand, request; beseech
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
得: dé · obtain, get, gain, acquire

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–2 · qiu2 zhi1 bu4 de2

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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

kau4 zi1 bat1 dak1

Cantonese word readings for 求之不得. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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