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赤貧如洗

简赤贫如洗 · 繁赤貧如洗

Mandarin · pinyin chì pín rú xǐ

without two nickels to rub together (idiom)
impoverished

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Characters in this entry

赤: chì · red; bare; Kangxi radical 155
貧: Look up this written character
如: rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
洗: xǐ · wash, rinse; clean, purify
贫: pín · poor, impoverished, needy

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–2–3 · chi4 pin2 ru2 xi3

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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.

赤貧如洗 · find source passages ↗ · 赤贫如洗 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cek3 pan4 jyu4 sai2

Cantonese word readings for 赤貧如洗. 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) destitute, utterly impoverished, dirt-poor

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

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