DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

船到江心，補漏遲

简船到江心，补漏迟 · 繁船到江心，補漏遲

Mandarin · pinyin chuán dào jiāng xīn , bǔ lòu chí

It's too late to plug the leak once ship is in the middle of the river. (idiom)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

船: chuán · ship, boat, vessel
到: dào · go to, arrive, been to
江: jiāng · large river; the Yangzi; surname
心: xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
補: Look up this written character
漏: lòu · leak, drip; funnel; hour glass
遲: Look up this written character
补: bǔ · mend, patch, fix, repair, restore
迟: chí · late, tardy; slow; delay

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

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

7character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

船到江心，補漏遲 · find source passages ↗ · 船到江心，补漏迟 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗