- lit. a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); fig. an action made pointless by changed circumstances
Characters
- 刻 (刻): quarter (hour); moment; to carve; to engrave; to cut; oppressive; classifier for short time intervals
- 舟 (舟): boat
- 求 (求): to seek; to look for; to request; to demand; to beseech
- 剑 (劍): double-edged sword; CL:口[kou3],把[ba3]; classifier for blows of a sword
Resources
- Wiktionary: 刻舟求剑
- MDBG: 刻舟求剑
- Examples with 刻舟求剑 on Tatoeba
Examples
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