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賠了夫人又折兵

简赔了夫人又折兵 · 繁賠了夫人又折兵

Mandarin · pinyin péi le fū rén yòu zhé bīng

lit. having given away a bride, to lose one's army on top of it (idiom)
fig. to suffer a double loss after trying to trick the enemy

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Characters in this entry

賠: Look up this written character
了: le · to finish; particle of completed action
夫: fū · man, male adult, husband; those
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
又: yòu · and, also, again, in addition
折: zhé · break off, snap; bend
兵: bīng · soldier, troops
赔: péi · indemnify, suffer loss

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

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Mandarin tones

2–5–1–2–4–2–1 · pei2 le5 fu1 ren2 you4 zhe2 bing1

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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.

賠了夫人又折兵 · find source passages ↗ · 赔了夫人又折兵 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

pui4 liu5 fu1 jan4 jau6 zit3 bing1

Cantonese word readings for 賠了夫人又折兵. 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 suffer a double whammy after trying to take advantage of something

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

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