老鼠拉龜

Chinese

		mouse and rat in general; cunning, deceitful person	to pull; to play (string instruments); to drag to pull; to play (string instruments); to drag; to draw	tortoise; turtle
trad. (老鼠拉龜)		老鼠	拉	龜
simp. (老鼠拉龟)		老鼠	拉	龟
Literally: “a rat tries to pull a turtle”.

Etymology

The idiom is a Cantonese xiehouyu and the second part may be 無從下手／无从下手 (wúcóng xiàshǒu), 無處下手／无处下手 (wúchù xiàshǒu) (in Mandarin) or 冇埞埋手 (mou⁵ deng⁶ maai⁴ sau²) (in Cantonese).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): lǎoshǔ lā guī

  (Zhuyin): ㄌㄠˇ ㄕㄨˇ ㄌㄚ ㄍㄨㄟ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): lou⁵ syu² laai¹ gwai¹

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: lǎoshǔ lā guī [Phonetic: láoshǔlāguī]
    • Zhuyin: ㄌㄠˇ ㄕㄨˇ ㄌㄚ ㄍㄨㄟ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: lǎoshǔ la guei
    • Wade–Giles: lao³-shu³ la¹ kuei¹
    • Yale: lǎu-shǔ lā gwēi
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: laoshuu lha guei
    • Palladius: лаошу ла гуй (laošu la guj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /lɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻³⁵ ʂu²¹⁴⁻²¹ lä⁵⁵ ku̯eɪ̯⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: lou⁵ syu² laai¹ gwai¹
    • Yale: lóuh syú lāai gwāi
    • Cantonese Pinyin: lou⁵ sy² laai¹ gwai¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: lou⁵ xu² lai¹ guei¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /lou̯¹³ syː³⁵ laːi̯⁵⁵ kʷɐi̯⁵⁵/

Idiom

老鼠拉龜

1. (originally Cantonese, figurative) to have no clue about how to handle a problem