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翻箱倒櫃

简翻箱倒柜 · 繁翻箱倒櫃

Mandarin · pinyin fān xiāng dǎo guì

to overturn trunks and boxes
to make a thorough search (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

翻: fān · flip over, upset, capsize
箱: xiāng · case, box, chest, trunk
倒: dào · fall over; lie down; take turns
櫃: Look up this written character
柜: guì · cabinet, cupboard; shop counter

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–4 · fan1 xiang1 dao3 gui4

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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.

翻箱倒櫃 · find source passages ↗ · 翻箱倒柜 · find source passages ↗

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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.

verb

to overturn trunks and boxes, to make a thorough search

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

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