DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

落草為寇

简落草为寇 · 繁落草為寇

Mandarin · pinyin luò cǎo wéi kòu

(idiom) to take to the woods to become an outlaw

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

落: luò · fall, drop; net income, surplus
草: cǎo · grass, straw, thatch, herbs
為: Look up this written character
寇: kòu · bandits, thieves; enemy; invade
为: wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–3–2–4 · luo4 cao3 wei2 kou4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character 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.

落草為寇 · find source passages ↗ · 落草为寇 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to become a bandit in the mountains and woods

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack