水仙不开花
shuǐ​xiān​bù​kāi​huā

to play dumb

  • created reference approved 水仙不开花/水仙不開花 → 装蒜/裝蒜 (synonym) — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    水仙不开花 / 水仙不開花 shuǐ​xiān​bù​kāi​huā

    装蒜 / 裝蒜 zhuāng​suàn

    synonym

    Changed: source (simp), source (trad), source pinyin, target (simp), target (trad), target pinyin, type

    created reference

  • created sense approved 水仙不开花/水仙不開花 · shuǐ​xiān​bù​kāi​huā · to play dumb — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    水仙不开花 / 水仙不開花

    shuǐ​xiān​bù​kāi​huā

    to play dumb

    a [[歇后语|歇後語|xie1 hou4 yu3]] (two-part allegorical saying) meaning to pretend not to know; specifically meaning [[装蒜|裝蒜|zhuang1 suan4]]. Derived from the fact that a narcissus that has not bloomed looks almost identical to a head of garlic.

    水仙 (literal) → 水仙 · shuǐ​xiān · narcissus 不 (literal) → 不 · bù · not 开花 (literal) → 开花/開花 · kāi​huā · to bloom

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense