I understand the overall meaning of this saying, but I don't understand the specific meaning of the characters 无觅处. It literally would mean 'unsearched location,' which semantically doesn't make sense. Can anyone explain the meaning of that bit?
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踏破铁鞋无觅处 for explanation see baike.baidu.com/item/… 觅：找: 无觅处:却仍然找不到 did not find anywhere– user6065Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 14:25
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1无觅处 might be considered an abbreviation of 无觅之处，（no place where it could be found) enter "无 处" into jukuu, get many samples with "无...之 处＂where for "..." there is a verb (with object) or adjective,– user6065Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 14:34
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1 Answer
It literally would mean 'unsearched location,'
The point is that 无 is used for 处 (place) here, not 觅 (seek). So 无觅处 should be parsed as 无|觅处, which literally means "there's no seeking place", i.e. there's not such place for seeking, semantically means "(something) can't be found at all (and you even don't know where to look for)".
If you parse it as 无觅|处, you'll get "unsearched location" which literally means 没有找的地方, which indicates that there're still places which could be sought; they're just not be sought by now.