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覆水難收

简覆水难收 · 繁覆水難收

Mandarin · pinyin fù shuǐ nán shōu

spilt water is difficult to retrieve (idiom)
it's no use crying over spilt milk
what's done is done and can't be reversed
the damage is done
once divorced, there's no reuniting

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Characters in this entry

覆: fù · cover; tip over; return; reply
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
難: Look up this written character
收: shōu · gather together, collect; harvest
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–2–1 · fu4 shui3 nan2 shou1

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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.

覆水難收 · find source passages ↗ · 覆水难收 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fuk1 seoi2 naan4 sau1

Cantonese word readings for 覆水難收. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) there's no point crying over spilt milk

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

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