DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

話裡套話

简话里套话 · 繁話裡套話

Mandarin · pinyin huà lǐ tào huà

to use seemingly innocent conversation topics as a pretext to glean information
to touch upon other matters not central to the topic being discussed

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Characters in this entry

話: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
裡: Look up this written character
套: tào · case, cover, wrapper, envelope
话: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
里: lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–4 · hua4 li3 tao4 hua4

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