DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

草船借箭

Mandarin · pinyin cǎo chuán jiè jiàn

lit. using straw boats to borrow arrows (idiom, from 三國演義 Sān guó Yǎn yì)
fig. to use others' manpower and resources for one's own ends

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Characters in this entry

草: cǎo · grass, straw, thatch, herbs
船: chuán · ship, boat, vessel
借: jiè · borrow; lend; make pretext of
箭: jiàn · arrow; type of bamboo

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–4–4 · cao3 chuan2 jie4 jian4

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