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浑水摸鱼

hún shuǐ mō yúdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
to fish in troubled water (idiom) / to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain
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-85186a66de68735c. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

渾水摸魚 浑水摸鱼 [hun2 shui3 mo1 yu2] /to fish in troubled water (idiom); to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain/

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: 渾水摸魚

  • 浑
    hún

    muddy / turbid / brainless / foolish / (bound form) simple / natural / (bound form) whole / entire / all over

  • 水
    shuǐ

    water / (after a name) ... River / to swim (used mostly in 會水|会水[huì shuǐ] and 水性[shuǐ xìng]) / (coll.) lacking in substance / shoddy / (bound form) additional cost / extra income / classifier for washings of a garment

    Shuǐ

    surname Shui / Shui ethnic group

  • 摸
    mō

    to feel with the hand / to touch / to stroke / to grope / to steal / to abstract

    mó

    See the full entry for source details.

  • 鱼
    yú

    fish (CL:條|条[tiáo],尾[wěi]) / used in the names of various aquatic animals that are not fish (including abalone 鮑魚|鲍鱼[bào yú], alligators and crocodiles 鱷魚|鳄鱼[è yú] and octopi 章魚|章鱼[zhāng yú])

    Yú

    surname Yu

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.