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滴酒不沾

Mandarin · pinyin dī jiǔ bù zhān

never to touch a drop of alcohol

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Characters in this entry

滴: dī · drip; drop of water
酒: jiǔ · wine, spirits, liquor, alcoholic beverage
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
沾: zhān · moisten, wet, soak; touch

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–1 · di1 jiu3 bu4 zhan1

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to never touch a drop of alcohol; to abstain from drinking; to be strictly teetotal

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

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