草 草 收 兵

cǎo cǎo shōu bīngdictionary entry

to work vaguely then retreat (idiom) / sloppy and half-hearted / half-baked

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-214fe29dc3821b6a. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

草草收兵 草草收兵 [cao3 cao3 shou1 bing1] /to work vaguely then retreat (idiom); sloppy and half-hearted/half-baked/

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.

草
cǎo
grass / straw / manuscript / draft (of a document) / careless / rough / CL:棵[kē],撮[zuǒ],株[zhū],根[gēn]
cào
See the full entry for source details.
草
cǎo
grass / straw / manuscript / draft (of a document) / careless / rough / CL:棵[kē],撮[zuǒ],株[zhū],根[gēn]
cào
See the full entry for source details.
收
shōu
to receive / to accept / to collect / to put away / to restrain / to stop / in care of (used on address line after name)
兵
bīng
soldiers / a force / an army / weapons / arms / military / warlike / CL:個|个[gè]

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.