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討好賣乖

简讨好卖乖 · 繁討好賣乖

Mandarin · pinyin tǎo hǎo mài guāi

to curry favor by showing obeisance (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

討: Look up this written character
好: hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
賣: Look up this written character
乖: guāi · rebel; crafty, shrewd
讨: tǎo · to discuss; ask for, beg; demand; dun; marry
卖: mài · sell; betray; show off

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4–1 · tao3 hao3 mai4 guai1

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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.

討好賣乖 · find source passages ↗ · 讨好卖乖 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tou2 hou2 maai6 gwaai1

Cantonese word readings for 討好賣乖. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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