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零敲碎打

Mandarin · pinyin líng qiāo suì dǎ

to do things in bits and pieces (idiom); piecemeal work

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Characters in this entry

零: líng · zero; fragment, fraction
敲: qiāo · strike, beat, pound, hammer; rap
碎: suì · break, smash; broken, busted
打: dǎ · strike, hit, beat; fight; attack

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–3 · ling2 qiao1 sui4 da3

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ling4 haau1 seoi3 daa2

Cantonese word readings for 零敲碎打. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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