买 椟 还 珠

mǎi dú huán zhūdictionary entry

to buy a wooden box and return the pearls inside / to show poor judgment (idiom)

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-adf9e2e7812d6700. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

買櫝還珠 买椟还珠 [mai3 du2 huan2 zhu1] /to buy a wooden box and return the pearls inside/to show poor judgment (idiom)/

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: 買櫝還珠

买
mǎi
to buy / to purchase
椟
dú
cabinet / case / casket
还
hái
still / still in progress / still more / yet / even more / in addition / fairly / passably (good) / as early as / even / also / else
huán
to pay back / to return
Huán
surname Huan
珠
zhū
bead / pearl / CL:粒[lì],顆|颗[kē]

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.