見機行事

简 见机行事 · 繁 見機行事
Mandarin · pinyin jiàn jī xíng shì

Meanings

  1. see the opportunity and act (idiom); to act according to circumstances
  2. to play it by ear
  3. to use one's discretion
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Characters in this entry

見
jiàn · see, observe, behold; perceive; Kangxi radical 147
機
Look up this written character
行
xíng · go; walk; move, travel; circulate; Kangxi radical 144
事
shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
见
jiàn · see, observe, behold; perceive
机
jī · desk; machine; moment
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–2–4 · jian4 ji1 xing2 shi4

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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.

見機行事 · find source passages ↗ · 见机行事 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gin3 gei1 hang4 si6

Cantonese word readings for 見機行事. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

見機行事 · jian4 ji1 xing2 shi4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 99,816
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record見機行事 见机行事 [jian4 ji1 xing2 shi4] /see the opportunity and act (idiom); to act according to circumstances/to play it by ear/to use one's discretion/