抽絲剝繭

Chinese

			peel; to skin	cocoon
trad. (抽絲剝繭)		抽絲	剝	繭
simp. (抽丝剥茧)		抽丝	剥	茧
Literally: “to pull out the (raw) silk (from the silkworm) and peel off the cocoon (of the silkworm)”.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): chōusībōjiǎn

  (Zhuyin): ㄔㄡ ㄙ ㄅㄛ ㄐㄧㄢˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): cau¹ si¹ mok¹ gaan²

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: chōusībōjiǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄔㄡ ㄙ ㄅㄛ ㄐㄧㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: chousihbojiǎn
    • Wade–Giles: chʻou¹-ssŭ¹-po¹-chien³
    • Yale: chōu-sz̄-bwō-jyǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: chousybojean
    • Palladius: чоусыбоцзянь (čousyboczjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʈ͡ʂʰoʊ̯⁵⁵ sz̩⁵⁵ pu̯ɔ⁵⁵ t͡ɕi̯ɛn²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: cau¹ si¹ mok¹ gaan²
    • Yale: chāu sī mōk gáan
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsau¹ si¹ mok⁷ gaan²
    • Guangdong Romanization: ceo¹ xi¹ mog¹ gan²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰɐu̯⁵⁵ siː⁵⁵ mɔːk̚⁵ kaːn³⁵/

Idiom

(deprecated template usage) 抽絲剝繭

1. to painstakingly get to the bottom of something; to struggle to understand a convoluted argument or issue