舞 文 弄 墨

wǔ wén nòng mòdictionary entry

(idiom) to display one's facility with words / to show off one's literary skills / (original meaning) to pervert the law by playing with legal phraseology (墨[mò] was a reference to 繩墨|绳墨[shéng mò])

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-3f3d615875c2aa69. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

舞文弄墨 舞文弄墨 [wu3 wen2 nong4 mo4] /(idiom) to display one's facility with words/to show off one's literary skills/(original meaning) to pervert the law by playing with legal phraseology (墨[mo4] was a reference to 繩墨|绳墨[sheng2 mo4])/

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Reference information

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

Character information

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Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.