Hi @YuQinCai, @Constance_Fang @Fiona and the ChinesePod team, my question is this: I was learning the latest lesson you posted. In the expansion part (), there’s a sentence:
"这个保安整天毛手毛脚，是个不正经的人。 "
translation goes:
This security guard is not trustworthy as he is always up to some tricks.
I am not sure if this translation is on point? I thought 毛手毛脚 means “careless” or flirty here？
Hi there,
毛手毛腳 in ancient usage had the meaning of careless, and it originally came from there too.
But nowadays, at least to my entire 25 years native Mandarin life experience, there’s only one meaning still being used, which is to tend to sexually harass others.
I think 毛手毛脚 usually means someone is very careless. He/she can still get it wrong even something can be done very easily. For example, 他连这么简单的事情都做不好，也太毛手毛脚了。(He can’t even do such a simple thing, he’s too careless)
However, there’s another word - 动手动脚 which looks similar to 毛手毛脚 but it refers to the sexual harassment. Hope this could help you out.