无所不为 (wú suǒ bù wéi) — to stop at nothing; to do anything (usually unscrupulously or evil)

Definition

A strongly negative idiom: 'stop at nothing, do anything (no matter how evil)' — used only to condemn someone who commits every kind of wrongdoing.

idiom
to stop at nothingto do anything (usually unscrupulously or evil)

Examples

  • 无所不为，。
    Zhè ge huài rén wú suǒ bù wéi, shén me huài shì dōu gān dé chū lái.
    This bad person stops at nothing; they are capable of any evil deed.
  • ，无所不为，。
    Wèi le quán lì, tā wú suǒ bù wéi, shèn zhì bù xī shāng hài qīn rén.
    For power, he stops at nothing, even harming his own family.
  • 无所不为。
    Nà xiē wú suǒ bù wéi de shāng rén zuì zhōng dōu shòu dào le fǎ lǜ de zhì cái.
    Those businessmen who stopped at nothing eventually faced legal punishment.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

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
斤斤jīnaxe
Sound part声符shēngfú
戶
戶hù所suǒ
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

所 pairs 斤, an axe, with 戶, which gives the sound hù; the old meaning was the sound of logging.

Open 所 →

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 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 為; 为 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 為 showed a hand holding an elephant; the simplified 为 is a later shorthand.

Open 为 →

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