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賊眉鼠眼

简贼眉鼠眼 · 繁賊眉鼠眼

Mandarin · pinyin zéi méi shǔ yǎn

shifty-eyed
crafty-looking (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

賊: Look up this written character
眉: méi · eyebrows; upper margin of book
鼠: shǔ · rat, mouse; Kangxi radical 208
眼: yǎn · eye; eyelet, hole, opening
贼: zéi · thief, traitor; kill

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–3–3 · zei2 mei2 shu3 yan3

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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.

賊眉鼠眼 · find source passages ↗ · 贼眉鼠眼 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caak6 mei4 syu2 ngaan5

Cantonese word readings for 賊眉鼠眼. 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) to look shifty or furtive; to look like a crook

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

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