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潰不成軍

简溃不成军 · 繁潰不成軍

Mandarin · pinyin kuì bù chéng jūn

(idiom) (of troops) to be utterly routed and dispersed

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Characters in this entry

潰: Look up this written character
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
成: chéng · completed, finished, fixed
軍: Look up this written character
溃: kuì · flooding river; militarily defeat
军: jūn · army, military; soldiers, troops

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–2–1 · kui4 bu4 cheng2 jun1

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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.

潰不成軍 · find source passages ↗ · 溃不成军 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kui2 bat1 sing4 gwan1

Cantonese word readings for 潰不成軍. 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 utterly routed; to be soundly defeated

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

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