吃軟不吃硬

简 吃软不吃硬 · 繁 吃軟不吃硬
Mandarin · pinyin chī ruǎn bù chī yìng

Meanings

  1. lit. eats soft food, but refuses hard food (idiom)
  2. amenable to coaxing but not coercion
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Characters in this entry

吃
chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
軟
Look up this written character
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
硬
yìng · hard, firm, strong; obstinate
软
ruǎn · soft, flexible, pliable; weak
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–1–4 · chi1 ruan3 bu4 chi1 ying4

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

hek3 jyun5 bat1 hek3 ngaang6

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) to be amenable to friendly persuasion but not to compulsion

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

吃軟不吃硬 · chi1 ruan3 bu4 chi1 ying4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 19,640
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record吃軟不吃硬 吃软不吃硬 [chi1 ruan3 bu4 chi1 ying4] /lit. eats soft food, but refuses hard food (idiom)/amenable to coaxing but not coercion/