舞文弄墨 in English wu3 wen2 nong4 mo4 Meaning

Meanings

  • (idiomatic expression) to display one's facility with words
  • to show off one's literary skills
  • (original meaning) to pervert the law by playing with legal phraseology (墨[mo4] was a reference to 繩墨|绳墨[sheng2 mo4])

Simplified Characters

Traditional Characters

Pinyin

wu3 wen2 nong4 mo4

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

wu3to dance wen2surname Wen nong4lane mo4surname Mo