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马虎 (mǎ hu) — careless, sloppy, negligent

Definition

马虎 describes a careless person or careless habits (making mistakes, overlooking details). 草率 describes rushing a decision or action rashly; 潦草 is used for sloppy handwriting.

adjective
carelesssloppynegligent

Examples

  • 马虎，。
    Tā zuò zuò yè tài mǎ hu le, cuò le hěn duō.
    He was too careless with his homework and made many mistakes.
  • 马虎，。
    Bié zhè me mǎ hu, rèn zhēn jiǎn chá yí biàn.
    Don't be so sloppy; carefully check it once.
  • 马虎。
    Tā de mǎ hu ràng gōng sī sǔn shī le yí dà bǐ qián.
    His carelessness cost the company a large sum of money.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

马mǎ
虎hǔ

The characters 马 and 虎 carry no meaning of their own here; the whole form means careless or sloppy.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 馬; 马 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 馬 shows a horse with its head facing left, a flowing mane, and two legs standing vertically.

Open 马 →

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

虎 originally drew a tiger's head. Its body disappeared, and the legs and tail became the lower part.

Open 虎 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6HSK 2.0 Level 4Personality & Traits

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