Chinese
Proverbs Containing Food
[ Format: # Chinese Proverb: Literal translation (original meaning). / Extended
meaning (modern usage). ]
Keyword
1: 食 (n.) food;
(v.) to eat.
01
伴食宰相:
The prime minister whose only duty is to eat together with the emperor. /
An incompetent person.
02
饱食终日:
Eat till full everyday. / Idle people, bum.
03
并日而食:
Eat only one meal in two days. / Work too hard without caring one’s health; or too poor to eat.
04
不食周粟:
Would not eat Zhou Dynasty’s grain. / To remain loyal to the
previous dynasty/ruler.
05
蚕食鲸吞:
To nibble like a silkworm, and to devour like a whale. / To expand territory
recklessly.
06
箪食壶浆:
(Offering) Food with basket and beverage with pot. / Army or leadership which
is welcomed / supported.
07
废寝忘食:
Give up sleep and forget to eat. / Be totally devoted to one’s business.
08
饥不择食:
The starved does not choose food. / Desperate people always do not have a
choice.
09
嗟来之食:
Get food from people who yell at you. / To achieve goals by relinquishing
honor.
10
节衣缩食:
Be frugal on dressing and eating. / People who save on small things are usually
planning for the future.
11
解衣推食:
To share one’s clothes and food to another.
/ Leaders who are generous and respectful can attract elites.
12
锦衣玉食:
Brocade clothes and jade food containers. / An extravagant life or an exceptional
treatment.
13
率兽食人:
Lead a horde of beasts to feast on human flesh. / Benighted rule or cruel
military action.
14
民以食为天:
Food is the heaven of people. / Rulers should take agricultural production
as the most important thing.
15
肉食者鄙:
The meat-eating people are short-sighted and superficial. / Politicians only
care their own interests.
16
弱肉强食:
Weak meat (animal) is doomed to be eaten by the strong. / The world and life
are merciless.
17
食不甘味:
Cannot taste the food. / To be totally occupied by business (usually state
affairs, referring to statesmen).
18
食不果腹:
Food cannot stuff the stomach. / A precarious life.
19
食古不化:
Eat the ancient things, but cannot digest. / Accept whatever the classics
say without thinking.
20
食毛践土:
Eat animal with hair on and ravage the land. / Uncivilized people who don’t respect heaven.
21
食前方丈:
Dishes occupy a table which is 100 square-foot big. / A presumptuous and extravagant
life.
22
食肉寝皮:
Eat one’s meat and sleep on one’s skin. / Absolutely irreconcilable hatred or feud.
23
食言而肥:
Gain weight by eating up one’s own words. / Some people always
do not keep their words.
24
食玉炊桂:
Eat jade and burn cinnamon. / Commodity prices are too high, and life is difficult.
25
晚食当肉:
To eat late is the same as having meat in dinner. / Be content with one’s current life.
26
宵衣旰食:
Get dressed before dawn, and eat very late in night. / Hardworking, very devoted.
27
衣食父母:
Parents who give food and clothes. / Officials are deemed as people’s saviors.
28
因噎废食:
You cannot give up eating only because of being choked once. / You can always
try again.
29
余食赘行:
If you eat too much, those food can only become burden when you walk. / Don’t overdo things.
30钟鸣鼎食:
To listen music played by great bell and to eat food cooked in great pot.
/ A lordly life.
31
自食其力:
To feed oneself by one’s own hard work. / A self-made
man.
Keyword
2: 吃 (v.) to
eat.
32
吃里爬外:
Eat what’s inside, while coveting what’s outside. / An insatiable person, or a turncoat,
traitor.
33
看菜吃饭:
Rice is served basing on what kind of dishes are available. / To speak or
behave after careful observation.
34
寅吃卯粮:
On the third day of a month, the food of the fourth is already eaten. / You
cannot spend in advance.
35
坐吃山空:
If you sit there and eat, a mountain can be eaten up. / Work first, and then
come other things.
Keyword
3: 肉 (n.) meat,
flesh.
36
酒池肉林:
A pond of wine, and a forest of meat strips. / A benighted ruler’s extravagant life, which is doomed.
37
酒肉朋友:
Friends of wine and meat. / Real friends are those known from intellectual
communications.
38人为刀俎，我为鱼肉:
People are knife and cutting board, we are fish and meat. / A hopeless situation
(usually war).
39
三月不知肉味:
Haven’t smelled meat for 3 months. /
Being totally concentrated on business (usually academics).
40 朱门酒肉臭，路有冻死骨:
Inside the red gate, wine and meat rot; on the road, there are people frozen
to death. / The uneven distribution of wealth in the society.
Keyword
4: 鱼 (n.) fish.
41
鲍鱼之肆:
The market that sells abalone (or salted fish). / People from low class can
never get rid of some vices.
42
得鱼忘筌:
Fishing cage is forgotten after fishing. / Those who were of help should not
be forgotten.
43
鸡头鱼刺:
Head of chicken and bone of fish. / Trivial things, not important at all.
44
临渊羡鱼:
Standing on the edge of river, covet fishes. / One should take practical steps
to achieve one’s aims.
45
水清无鱼:
The clearest water does not have fish. / The all-seeing people cannot have
friend.
46
鱼龙混杂:
Fish and dragon are mixed. / Elites are always hidden among ordinary people.
47
鱼米之乡:
The village of fish and rice. / A rich place.
48
鱼目混珠:
Mix the fish’s eyes among the pearls. / To counterfeit;
or mediocre people pretend to be capable.
49
缘木求鱼:
Climb the tree and look for fish. / You should not look for things in wrong
place.
Keyword
5: 米 (n.) rice.
50
吹糠见米:
Rice appears after the chaff is blown away. / Instruction or explanation which
is easy to understand.
51
米珠薪桂:
Rice is pearl, firewood is cinnamon. / High commodity prices make life hard.
52
巧妇难为无米之炊:
The most capable housewife cannot make meal without rice. / No supply, no
production.
53
生米煮成熟饭:
The grain has been cooked into steamed rice. / Things are now in motion that
cannot be undone.
54
数米而炊:
Count rice to cook. / On the verge of bankruptcy.
55
偷鸡不着蚀把米:
The chicken was not stolen, at the cost of a handful of rice as bait. / A
failed scheme.
Keyword
6: 菜 (n.) vegetable,
or dish.
56
糠菜半年粮:
Chaff and cheap vegetable are half year’s food. / An extremely hard life.
57
面有菜色:
The color of the face is that of vegetable. / A person of poor health, or
of a tough life.
58
挑得篮里便是菜:
Whatever picked up into the basket will be made into dishes. / A careless
person.
Keyword
7: 味 (n.) taste,
smell, odor, or aroma.
59
回味无穷:
The taste of food lasts forever. / Something (music, play, or book) has a
long-lasting value.
60
味如鸡肋:
Tastes as chicken’s rib. / Something that’s of some value, but not worth struggling for.
61
味同嚼蜡:
Tastes like chewing wax. / Boring person or entertainment.
Keyword
8: 饭 (n.) meal,
food.
62
炊沙成饭:
To cook sand into rice. / Impossible mission; on another hand, also means
miracle happens in a crisis.
63
酒囊饭袋:
Wine-pot and food-bag. / A good-for-nothing person.
64
一饭千金:
A meal is worth 1000 taels of gold. / A small help
in need should be paid 1000 times greater.
65
衣架饭囊:
Clothes-hanger and food-bag. / Just a pretty face and good-for-nothing.
Keyword
9: 酒 (n.) alcoholic
beverage.
66
斗酒百篇:
After a good drink, 100 poems will be made. / Inspiration is important.
67
对酒当歌:
We should sing whenever we have wine. / Life is just several decades.
68
花天酒地:
A sky of flower and a floor of wine. / A lavish and wasted life.
69
今朝有酒今朝醉:
We should be drunken today as long as we have wine. / Wherever, whatever, have a nice day.
70
酒色财气:
Drinking, sex, wealth, wrath. / Men should be cautious when temptations are
present.
71
新瓶装旧酒:
To put old wine into new bottle. / A phony “new” thing.
72
醉翁之意不在酒:
The drunken man’s intention is not in the wine.
/ What is said is not what is meant.