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牽腸掛肚

简牵肠挂肚 · 繁牽腸掛肚

Mandarin · pinyin qiān cháng guà dù

deeply worried (idiom); to feel anxious

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Characters in this entry

牽: Look up this written character
腸: Look up this written character
掛: guà · hang, suspend; suspense
肚: dù · belly; abdomen; bowels
牵: qiān · drag, pull, lead by hand
肠: cháng · intestines; emotions; sausage
挂: guà · hang, suspend; suspense

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · qian1 chang2 gua4 du4

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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.

牽腸掛肚 · find source passages ↗ · 牵肠挂肚 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hin1 coeng4 gwaa3 tou5

Cantonese word readings for 牽腸掛肚. 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

(Jin) very anxious and unable to set one's mind at ease

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

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