冥思苦索

冥思苦索

Chinese

		to think hard; to cudgel one's brains; delusion to think hard; to cudgel one's brains; delusion; fantasy	bitter; intensely; miserable bitter; intensely; miserable; painful	to search; to demand; to ask to search; to demand; to ask; to exact; large rope; isolated
trad. (冥思苦索)		冥思	苦	索
simp. #(冥思苦索)		冥思	苦	索

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): míngsīkǔsuǒ

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄙ ㄎㄨˇ ㄙㄨㄛˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ming⁵ si¹ fu² sok³

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: míngsīkǔsuǒ [Phonetic: míngsīkúsuǒ]
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄙ ㄎㄨˇ ㄙㄨㄛˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: míngsihkǔsuǒ
    • Wade–Giles: ming²-ssŭ¹-kʻu³-so³
    • Yale: míng-sz̄-kǔ-swǒ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: mingsykuusuoo
    • Palladius: минсыкусо (minsykuso)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /miŋ³⁵ sz̩⁵⁵ kʰu²¹⁴⁻³⁵ swɔ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: ming⁵ si¹ fu² sok³
    • Yale: míhng sī fú sok
    • Cantonese Pinyin: ming⁵ si¹ fu² sok⁸
    • Guangdong Romanization: ming⁵ xi¹ fu² sog³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mɪŋ¹³ siː⁵⁵ fuː³⁵ sɔːk̚³/

Idiom

冥思苦索

1. to think long and hard; to rack one's brains; to cudgel one's brains

   • 只有蠢人，才是他一個人，或者邀集一堆人，不作調查，而只是冥思苦索地「想辦法」，「打主意」。 [MSC, trad.]
     只有蠢人，才是他一个人，或者邀集一堆人，不作调查，而只是冥思苦索地“想办法”，“打主意”。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 1930, 毛澤東 (Mao Zedong), 《反對本本主義》 (Oppose Book Worship), 《毛澤東選集》 (Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung), English translation based on

     Zhǐyǒu chǔnrén, cái shì tā yī gè rén, huòzhě yāojí yī duī rén, bù zuò diàochá, ér zhǐshì míngsīkǔsuǒ de “xiǎng bànfǎ”, “dǎ zhǔyì”. [Pinyin]

     Only a blockhead cudgels his brains on his own, or together with a group, to "find solution" or "evolve an idea" without making any investigation.

Synonyms

• 冥思苦想 (míngsīkǔxiǎng)