磨刀霍霍

Mandarin · pinyin mó dāo huò huò

Meanings

  1. (lit.) to sharpen one's sword (idiom)
  2. (fig.) to prepare to attack; to be getting ready for battle
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Characters in this entry

磨
mó · grind; polish; rub; wear out; a millstone
刀
dāo · knife; old coin; measure
霍
huò · quickly, suddenly; surname
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–4 · mo2 dao1 huo4 huo4

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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.

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磨刀霍霍 · mo2 dao1 huo4 huo4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 80,167
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record磨刀霍霍 磨刀霍霍 [mo2 dao1 huo4 huo4] /(lit.) to sharpen one's sword (idiom)/(fig.) to prepare to attack; to be getting ready for battle/