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跳进黄河洗不清

tiào jìn Huáng Hé xǐ bù qīngdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. even jumping into the Yellow River can't get you clean / fig. to become inexorably mixed up / mired in controversy / in deep trouble
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-1bad7d93bae3058f. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

跳進黃河洗不清 跳进黄河洗不清 [tiao4 jin4 Huang2 He2 xi3 bu4 qing1] /lit. even jumping into the Yellow River can't get you clean/fig. to become inexorably mixed up/mired in controversy/in deep trouble/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 跳進黃河洗不清

  • 跳
    tiào

    to jump / to hop / to skip over / to bounce / to palpitate

  • 进
    jìn

    to go forward / to advance / to go in / to enter / to put in / to submit / to take in / to admit / (math.) base of a number system / classifier for sections in a building or residential compound

  • 黄
    huáng

    yellow / pornographic / to fall through

    Huáng

    surname Huang or Hwang

  • 河
    hé

    river (CL:條|条[tiáo],道[dào]) / (bound form) the Yellow River / (bound form) the Milky Way / (bound form) (on restaurant menus) rice noodles 河粉[hé fěn]

  • 洗
    xǐ

    to wash; to bathe / to develop (photographs) / to shuffle (cards etc) / to erase (a recording)

    xiǎn

    used in 洗馬|洗马[xiǎn mǎ]

  • 不
    bù

    no; not so / (bound form) not; un-

  • 清
    qīng

    (of water etc) clear; clean / quiet; still / pure; uncorrupted / clear; distinct / to clear; to settle (accounts)

    Qīng

    Qing (Wade-Giles: Ch'ing) dynasty of China (1644–1911) / surname Qing

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.