Chinese word dictionary

趋之若鹜

qū zhī ruò wù · to rush like ducks (idiom); the mob scrabbles madly for sth unobtainable; an unruly crowd on a wild goose chase

Practice word

Word information

Simplified趋之若鹜

Traditional趨之若鶩

Pinyinqū zhī ruò wù

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

趋qū

to hurry, to hasten; to approach, to be attracted to

之zhī

marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; to go to

若ruò

if, supposing, assuming; similar

鹜wù

duck

How to learn 趋之若鹜

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

之zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的); him; her; it

之zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5]); him; her; it

之后zhīhòu

after; behind; (at the beginning of a sentence) afterwards; since then

之间zhījiān

(after a noun) between; among; amid; (used after certain bisyllabic words to form expressions indicating a short period of time, e.g. 彈指之間|弹指之间[tan2 zhi3 zhi1 jian1])

之前zhīqián

before; prior to; ago; previously; beforehand

之中zhīzhōng

inside; among; in the midst of (doing sth); during