买椟还珠 — Chinese idiom
买椟还珠
mǎi dú huán zhū
Traditional: 買櫝還珠
Meaning
- to buy a wooden box and return the pearls inside
- to show poor judgment
Character by character
- 买mǎito buy, to purchase; to bribe, to persuade
- 椟dúcabinet, closet, wardrobe
- 还huánalso, besides; still, yet; to return
- 珠zhūgem, jewel, pearl, precious stone
Idioms sharing a character
- 千金难买 qiān jīn nán mǎi
- 博士买驴 bó shì mǎi lǘ
- 招兵买马 zhāo bīng mǎi mǎ
- 买笑追欢 mǎi xiào zhuī huān
- 郑人买履 zhèng rén mǎi lǚ
- 乍暖还寒 zhà nuǎn huán hán
- 以眼还眼 yǐ yǎn huán yǎn
- 借尸还魂 jiè shī huán hún
- 告老还乡 gào lǎo huán xiāng
- 衣锦还乡 yī jǐn huán xiāng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.