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撒手不管 (sā shǒu bù guǎn) — to wash one's hands of a matter, to abandon responsibility

Definition

An idiom for abandoning responsibility and walking away from a situation — stronger than just 'quitting', it implies leaving others to deal with the problem.

idiom
to wash one's hands of a matterto abandon responsibility

Examples

  • 撒手不管，。
    Tā zuò dào yí bàn jiù sā shǒu bù guǎn le, bǎ suǒ yǒu gōng zuò dōu liú gěi le wǒ.
    He did it halfway and then washed his hands of it, leaving all the work to me.
  • ，撒手不管。
    Zuò wéi fù zé rén, nǐ bù néng yù dào kùn nan jiù sā shǒu bù guǎn.
    As the person in charge, you can't just wash your hands of it when you run into difficulties.
  • ，撒手不管，。
    Gōng sī chū le wèn tí, lǎo bǎn què sā shǒu bù guǎn, yuán gōng men dōu hěn shī wàng.
    When the company had problems, the boss washed his hands of it, and the employees were all very disappointed.

Origin

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
散
散sàn撒sǎ
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

撒 combines 扌 (hand) with 散, which gives the sound; the hand part shows scattering with the hand.

Open 撒 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Open 手 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
竹竹zhúbamboo
Sound part声符shēngfú
官
官guān管guǎn
Same sound today

管 has 竹 (bamboo) on top to show it relates to bamboo, and 官 gives its sound.

Open 管 →
Appears in
Idioms & Set Phrases

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