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干打雷，不下雨

gān dǎ léi , bù xià yǔdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
all thunder but no rain (idiom) / a lot of noise but no action
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-c9cf230e3fabc4b8. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

乾打雷，不下雨 干打雷，不下雨 [gan1 da3 lei2 , bu4 xia4 yu3] /all thunder but no rain (idiom)/a lot of noise but no action/

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: 乾打雷，不下雨

  • 干
    gān

    dry / dried food / empty / hollow / taken in to nominal kinship / adoptive / foster / futile / in vain / (dialect) rude / blunt / (dialect) to cold-shoulder / (bound form) to have to do with / to concern oneself with / one of the ten heavenly stems 天干[tiān gān] / (archaic) shield

    gàn

    tree trunk / main part of sth / to manage / to work / to do / capable / cadre / to kill (slang) / to fuck (vulgar) / (coll.) pissed off / annoyed

    Gān

    surname Gan

  • 打
    dá

    (loanword) dozen / Taiwan pr. [dǎ]

    dǎ

    to hit / to strike / to fight / (in many expressions) a semantically light transitive verb used with various objects to form expressions with a wide range of meanings, e.g. 打傘|打伞[dǎ sǎn] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[dǎ diàn huà] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[dǎ zhēn] "to get an injection" / (coll.) from / since

  • 雷
    léi

    thunder / (bound form) (military) mine, as in 地雷[dì léi] land mine / (coll.) to shock / to stun / to astound / (Tw) (coll.) spoiler / (Tw) (coll.) to reveal plot details to (sb)

    Léi

    surname Lei

  • 不
    bù

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

  • 下
    xià

    down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action

  • 雨
    yù

    (literary) to rain / (of rain, snow etc) to fall / to precipitate / to wet

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.