| Change log entry 69047 | |
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| Processed by: | richwarm (2020-02-02 09:44:58 GMT) |
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<< review queue entry 64756 - submitted by 'sl89' >> * "everyone pitching in"/"with everyone lending a hand" — this is right but is missing the disorderly sense; in translation this is often lost but it's part of the meaning of the expression. * The meaning of Wenlin's "too many cooks spoil the broth" is that whenever too many people are involved in a task the result is always bad, but that's not what 七手八脚 means. 七手八脚 is generally positive, it's about people being eager to help. 【Wenlin】 f[ixed].e[xpression]. ① everyone pitching in ② too many cooks spoil the broth 【Pleco】 IDIOM with everyone lending a hand | 大伙儿七手八脚把他抬了出来。 | Everybody lent a hand to carry him out. | 大家七手八脚一会儿就把院子打扫干净了。 | With everybody lending a hand, the courtyard was soon swept clean. 【LAC】 形容很多人一起动手动脚；动作杂乱无章。 | 大伙～把东西搬过来。 【MoE】 形容人多动作纷乱没条理。 | 《金瓶梅．第七回》：「七手八脚将妇人床帐、装奁、箱笼，搬的搬，抬的抬，一阵风都搬去了。」 | 《红楼梦．第七○回》：「这里小丫头们听见放风筝，巴不得一声儿，七手八脚，都忙着拿出个美人风筝来。」 【规范】 形容人多, 手脚忙乱 | 大家七手八脚把他送进了医院。 下半天，棺木才合上盖：因为单四嫂子哭一回，看一回，总不肯死心塌地的盖上；幸亏王九妈等得不耐烦，气愤愤的跑上前，一把拖开他，才七手八脚的盖上了。 The coffin was not finally closed until late in the day because Sister Shan, unable to bring herself to part forever with Bao'er, stuck close to the coffin, gazing at her precious son through her tears. Ninth Auntie Wang finally lost patience, and pulled her aside long enough for those standing around to rush in and close the lid. (Lyell) Not till that afternoon was the lid of the coffin put on, because Fourth Shan's Wife would keep crying, then taking a look, and could not bear to have the lid closed down. Luckily, Ninth Aunt Wang grew tired of waiting. hurried indignantly forward and pulled her aside.Then they hastily closed it up. (Yangs) Because Mrs Shan wouldn't stop crying and wanting to take one last look at her son, because she refused to give up hope, the lid didn't get nailed down until the afternoon. In the end, Mrs Wang mercifully lost patience with her and yanked her away, as a confusion of hands scrabbled to fasten the lid. (Lovell) 鲁迅《明天》 直到七手八脚的将她和男人反关在新房里，还是骂，阿呀呀，这真是……。” Clear up to the time when they got her ―and they had everybody fallin' over everybody else tryin' to do it ―got her and the groom into the bride-room and locked it from the outside, she kept cursin' for all she was worth. Aiya! That was really, really . . ." (Lyell) It took quite a few of them to shut her up finally with the man in the bridal chamber, but even then she went on cursing. Oh, it was really....” (Yangs) It took every pair of hands they could muster to get her locked in the bedroom - and you should have heard her curse, my goodness ...” (Lovell) 鲁迅《祝福》 社场上卸了骡子，二十来个社员七手八脚忙起来。 赵树理《三里湾》 |
| Diff: |
# 七手八腳 七手八脚 [qi1 shou3 ba1 jiao3] /with everyone lending a hand (in an eager and disorderly way)/ + 七手八腳 七手八脚 [qi1 shou3 ba1 jiao3] /(idiom) with everyone lending a hand (eagerly but somewhat chaotically)/ |