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老巢 (lǎo cháo) — nest; den; lair (especially figurative: criminal's hideout or base)

Definition

Literally 'old nest', but in modern usage it almost always means a criminal gang's hideout or base of operations. Figurative sense dominates; the literal animal-nest reading is rare.

noun
nestdenlair (especially figurative: criminal's hideout or base)

Examples

  • 老巢。
    Jǐng fāng zhōng yú zhǎo dào le fàn dú jí tuán de lǎo cháo.
    The police finally found the drug trafficking group's lair.
  • 老巢。
    Zhè ge fàn zuì tuán huǒ de lǎo cháo bèi chè dǐ dǎo huǐ le.
    This criminal gang's hideout was completely destroyed.
  • 老巢。
    Tā men zài yí gè fèi qì gōng chǎng lǐ jiàn lì le lǎo cháo.
    They set up their den in an abandoned factory.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

老lǎoold
巢cháonest

老 means old and 巢 means nest, so it pictures an old nest used as a den.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 老 combines 人 (man), 毛 (hair), and 匕 (cane), showing a man with long hair leaning on a cane.

Open 老 →

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

巢 shows a baby bird in a nest on top of a tree.

Open 巢 →
Appears in
Crime & Police

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