DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

牛不喝水難按角

简牛不喝水难按角 · 繁牛不喝水難按角

Mandarin · pinyin niú bù hē shuǐ nán àn jiǎo

(idiom) you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink

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Characters in this entry

牛: niú · cow, ox, bull; Kangxi radical 93; 9th lunar mansion, determinative star β Capricorni (Dabih)
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
喝: hē · drink; shout, call out
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
難: Look up this written character
按: àn · put hand on, press down with hand
角: jiǎo · horn; angle, corner; point; Kangxi radical 148; 1st lunar mansion, determinative star Spica
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–1–3–2–4–3 · niu2 bu4 he1 shui3 nan2 an4 jiao3

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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.

牛不喝水難按角 · find source passages ↗ · 牛不喝水难按角 · find source passages ↗

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