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讨好

tǎo hǎo

HSK 3.0 level 7-9 2-character word Traditional 討好

讨好 (tǎo hǎo) means "to get the desired outcome; to win favor by fawning on sb; to curry favor with". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was not on the old six-level HSK list.

What 讨好 means

1. to get the desired outcome
2. to win favor by fawning on sb
3. to curry favor with
4. a fruitful outcome to reward one's labor

The characters in 讨好

• 讨tǎoto invite; to provoke; to demand or ask for
• 好hǎogood; appropriate; proper; all right!

Example sentences

• 那人很会讨好老板。
  Nà rén hěn huì tǎohǎo lǎobǎn.
  That man knows how to get on the president's good side.
• 他竭尽全力地讨好他老婆。
  Tā jiéjìnquánlì de tǎohǎo tā lǎopó.
  He bent over backward to please his wife.
• 翻译其实是一件吃力不讨好的事，因为一种语言在另一种语言中的对应物藏在往往隐藏在深不可测之处，翻译者需要百般寻觅，而且，挑剔的读者很难糊弄。
  Fānyì qíshí shì yī jiàn chīlìbùtǎohǎo de shì, yīnwèi yīzhǒng yǔyán zài lìngyī zhǒng yǔyán zhōng de duìyìng wù cáng zài wǎngwǎng yǐncáng zài shēnbùkěcè zhī chǔ, fānyìzhě xūyào bǎibān xúnmì, érqiě, tiāoti de dúzhě hěn nán hùnong.
  In reality, translation is akin to working for peanuts, since the corresponding meaning of something in one language is often hidden in some deep and impenetrable recesses of the other. As a result, the translator is forced to search all over... Never mind that the picky reader is very difficult to fool.

Words starting with 讨好

• 讨好卖乖tǎo hǎo mài guāito curry favor by showing obeisance (idiom)

Words containing 讨好

• 费力不讨好fèi lì bù tǎo hǎoarduous and thankless task (idiom); strenuous and unrewarding
• 吃力不讨好chī lì bù tǎo hǎoarduous and thankless task (idiom); strenuous and unrewarding
• 拼命讨好pīn mìng tǎo hǎoto throw oneself at sb or sth; to bend over backwards to help
• 奉承讨好fèng cheng tǎo hǎoto curry favor; to get the desired outcome by flattery

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read tǎo hǎo correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.