Chinese puzzle

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Audio (AU)(file)

Noun[edit]

Chinese puzzle (plural Chinese puzzles)

  1. A kind of puzzle made of interlocking pieces that must be disassembled and reassembled.
    • 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 343:
      The Consul carried another drink with Yvonne’s letters into an inner room, one of the boxes in the Chinese puzzle.
  2. (figurative, idiomatic) A senseless situation.
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