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溜鬚拍馬

简溜须拍马 · 繁溜鬚拍馬

Mandarin · pinyin liū xū pāi mǎ

to smooth whiskers and pat a horse's bottom (idiom); to use flatter to get what one wants
to toady
boot-licking

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Characters in this entry

溜: liū · slide, glide, slip; slippery
鬚: Look up this written character
拍: pāi · clap, tap, beat; beat or rhythm
馬: Look up this written character
须: xū · must, have to, necessary
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–1–3 · liu1 xu1 pai1 ma3

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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.

溜鬚拍馬 · find source passages ↗ · 溜须拍马 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lau6 sou1 paak3 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 溜鬚拍馬. 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

(chiefly Mandarin, colloquial) to brownnose; to kiss someone's ass; to suck up

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

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