DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

過不去

简过不去 · 繁過不去

Mandarin · pinyin guò bu qù

to make life difficult for
to embarrass
unable to make it through

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Characters in this entry

過: guò · pass, pass through, go across
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
去: qù · go away, leave, depart
过: guò · pass, pass through, go across

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

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Mandarin tones

4–5–4 · guo4 bu5 qu4

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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.

過不去 · find source passages ↗ · 过不去 · find source passages ↗

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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.

verb

(literally, figuratively) to be unable to go through
to make things difficult or awkward for (someone)
to not exceed
to feel sorry

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

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