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目不轉睛

简目不转睛 · 繁目不轉睛

Mandarin · pinyin mù bù zhuǎn jīng

unable to take one's eyes off (idiom); to gaze steadily
to stare

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Characters in this entry

目: mù · eye; look, see; division, topic; Kangxi radical 109
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
轉: Look up this written character
睛: jīng · eyeball; pupil of eye
转: zhuǎn · shift, move, turn

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–3–1 · mu4 bu4 zhuan3 jing1

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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.

目不轉睛 · find source passages ↗ · 目不转睛 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

muk6 bat1 zyun2 zing1

Cantonese word readings for 目不轉睛. 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 gaze into each other's eyes; to not take their eyes off of each other

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

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