DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

賣乖

简卖乖 · 繁賣乖

Mandarin · pinyin mài guāi

to show off one's cleverness
(of sb who has received beneficial treatment) to profess to have been hard done by

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

賣: Look up this written character
乖: guāi · rebel; crafty, shrewd
卖: mài · sell; betray; show off

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–1 · mai4 guai1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

賣乖 · find source passages ↗ · 卖乖 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

to pretend to feel wronged
to be sharp but petty-minded; to show off one's cleverness

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

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