DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

鮮花插在牛糞上

简鲜花插在牛粪上 · 繁鮮花插在牛糞上

Mandarin · pinyin xiān huā chā zài niú fèn shàng

lit. a bunch of flowers poked into a pile of manure
fig. a terrible shame (as when a lovely woman marries an odious man)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

鮮: Look up this written character
花: huā · flower; blossoms
插: chā · insert, stick into; plant
在: zài · be at, in, on; consist in, rest
牛: niú · cow, ox, bull; Kangxi radical 93; 9th lunar mansion, determinative star β Capricorni (Dabih)
糞: Look up this written character
上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
鲜: xiān · fresh; delicious; attractive
粪: fèn · manure, dung, excrement, night soil

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–1–4–2–4–4 · xian1 hua1 cha1 zai4 niu2 fen4 shang4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

8character 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.

鮮花插在牛糞上 · find source passages ↗ · 鲜花插在牛粪上 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗