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過街老鼠

简过街老鼠 · 繁過街老鼠

Mandarin · pinyin guò jiē lǎo shǔ

sb or sth detested by all
target of scorn
anathema
cf. 老鼠過街，人人喊打 lǎo shǔ guò jiē, rén rén hǎn dǎ

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Characters in this entry

過: guò · pass, pass through, go across
街: jiē · street, road, thoroughfare
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
鼠: shǔ · rat, mouse; Kangxi radical 208
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

4–1–3–3 · guo4 jie1 lao3 shu3

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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.

過街老鼠 · find source passages ↗ · 过街老鼠 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gwo3 gaai1 lou5 syu2

Cantonese word readings for 過街老鼠. 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) person detested or despised by everyone

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

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