DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

灰不溜丟

简灰不溜丢 · 繁灰不溜丟

Mandarin · pinyin huī bu liū diū

gloomy and dull (idiom)
boring and gray
unpleasantly murky

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Characters in this entry

灰: huī · ashes; dust; lime, mortar
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
溜: liū · slide, glide, slip; slippery
丟: diū · discard, reject, lose
丢: diū · discard

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

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Mandarin tones

1–5–1–1 · hui1 bu5 liu1 diu1

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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.

灰不溜丟 · find source passages ↗ · 灰不溜丢 · find source passages ↗

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