lit. a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); fig. an action made pointless by changed circumstances
trad. 刻舟求劍
Also written 刻舟求劍【kè zhōu qiú jiàn】
Characters in this word
4刻
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
quarter (hour), moment, to carve, to engrave, to cut, oppressive, classifier for short time intervals
- Pinyin
- kè
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 11132 of 2500
舟
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
boat
- Pinyin
- zhōu
- Strokes
- 6
- Frequency
- 33083 of 2500
求
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to seek, to look for, to request, to demand, to beseech
- Pinyin
- qiú
- Strokes
- 7
- Frequency
- 638 of 2500
剑
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
double-edged sword, CL:口[kou3],把[ba3], classifier for blows of a sword
- Pinyin
- jiàn
- Traditional
- 劍
- Strokes
- 9
- Frequency
- 2582 of 2500