expression:

• if you can't beat them; join them; if your adversaries are stronger than you, it is better to join their side than to fight them - proverb

noun:

• first of nine traditional astrological signs (corresponding to Mercury and north) ➜ 九星
• white patch on one foot of a horse; horse with such a patch
• surface (landscape) that is white all over; pure white

noun / prefix / suffix:

• medium; average; middle

noun:

• moderation
• middle school - abbreviation ➜ 中一・中学校
• China - abbreviation ➜ 中国
• volume two (of three) - abbreviation ➜ 中巻

suffix noun:

• during (a certain time when one did or is doing something); under (construction, etc.); while ➜ 話し中
• in; out of (e.g. three out of ten people) ➜ 中【じゅう】

ichidan verb / transitive:

• to deceive somebody into believing (e.g. that black is white); to cajole; to talk into; to explain away (e.g. unpleasant evidence); to argue away; to wheedle

expression:

• the word of a wise man is worth the words of one thousand fools; one thousand chirps of sparrows, one cry of a crane [literal] - proverb

expression:

• he has not lived that lives not after death; the great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it; tigers leave their hide when they die; men leave their name [literal] - proverb

expression:

• trying to straighten the horns of a bull, and killing it in the process; trying to correct a small defect and ruining the whole thing; The cure is worse than the disease - four character idiom

noun / ~する noun:

• breaking ground; ground-breaking (ceremony)

noun:

• New Year's ceremony in which a hoe is used to break ground in a field lying in a lucky direction

expression:

• starting something in the eleventh hour; have not thy cloak to make when it begins to rain; don't lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen; braiding the rope only after the thief is caught - proverb ➜ 泥縄【どろなわ】・泥縄式【どろなわしき】

noun:

• card to pick up (in card games); card that is picked up by players instead of read (in karuta); card printed with the second half of a poem (in karuta) ➜ 読み札

noun:

• hardship now, pleasure later; seeking pleasure only after dealing with difficulties; seeking pleasure only after the happiness of the people is assured (a precept to be observed by a ruler) - four character idiom

expression:

• a fox is not taken twice in the same snare; there are no birds in last year's nest; there aren't always loach under the willow tree [literal]; good luck does not always repeat itself - proverb

noun:

• flowers reflected on a mirror and the moon reflected on the water's surface; something that is visible but having no substance; the subtle and profound beauty of poems that cannot be described in words - four character idiom

expression / adjective:

• it can't be helped; it is inevitable; nothing can be done; there's no point (in doing something); there's no reason (to do something)

expression / ichidan verb:

• to greet; to call out (to); to start talking (to)
• to invite; to get in touch (with); to give a shout (to); to let (somebody) know (one is in the area or has time to meet, etc.)
• to cheer (on); to give vocal support (to)

noun:

• musical note; note symbol
• phonetic symbol (incl. the kanji and kana-doubling symbols, vowel-lengthening symbol, etc.)
• part of a kanji for which the role is primarily to represent the pronunciation (as opposed to the meaning) ➜ 意符

noun:

• single crime that naturally consists of a number of incidences and is charged as only one count (e.g. habitual gambling)
• crime whose goal requires a large number of people acting together (e.g. insurrection) ➜ 集団犯罪

expression:

• blue are the hills that are far away; the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence; far away smells of flowers; close up smells of dung [literal] - proverb

expression:

• if you do a favor for somebody, you will get a return favor; if a fish is friendly toward water, water will be kind to the fish too [literal]; mutual back-scratching - proverb

expression:

• something that comes too late and is useless; like a chrysanthemum prepared for the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar for the Chrysanthemum festival but that blooms only on the tenth ➜ 重陽

ichidan verb / transitive:

• to distinguish; to recognize; to recognise; to tell apart; to differentiate (both figuratively and visually)
• to identify (whether an object is positive or negative in some aspect); to know the difference between something of superior and inferior quality (on sight or figuratively)

expression:

• if you do a favor for somebody, you will get a return favor; if the water is kind to fish, the fish will be friendly toward water too [literal]; mutual back-scratching - idiom ➜ 魚心あれば水心

noun / ~する noun:

• joining; joint
• intermediation; acting as an intermediary

noun / ~する noun / ~の noun:

• relaying; taking over

noun:

• middle relief pitcher; middle reliever - abbreviation - Baseball term ➜ 中継ぎ投手
• pole-shaped item with a join in the middle
• tea container with a lid that is the same size as the body

expression:

• it is not as such; it does not seem as such - archaism
• it should not be as such

noun:

• tea whisk; bamboo whisk for making Japanese tea
• hair style where the hair is tied up in a bundle on the back of the head (resembling the shape of a tea whisk)