软磨硬泡 — Chinese idiom
软磨硬泡
ruǎn mó yìng pào
Traditional: 軟磨硬泡
Meaning
- to coax and pester
- to wheedle
- to cajole
Character by character
- 软ruǎnsoft, pliable, flexible; weak
- 磨mómillstone; to grind, to polish, to rub, to wear ou
- 硬yìngfirm, hard, strong; obstinate
- 泡pàobubble, blister; swollen, puffed up
Idioms sharing a character
- 心慈手软 xīn cí shǒu ruǎn
- 切磋琢磨 qiē cuō zhuó mó
- 卸磨杀驴 xiè mò shā lǘ
- 好事多磨 hǎo shì duō mó
- 磨刀霍霍 mó dāo huò huò
- 磨嘴皮子 mó zuǐ pí zi
- 磨杵成针 mó chǔ chéng zhēn
- 磨穿铁砚 mó chuān tiě yàn
- 耳鬓厮磨 ěr bìn sī mó
- 临阵磨枪 lín zhèn mó qiāng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.