海待

Mandarin · pinyin hǎi dài

Meanings

  1. student who has returned from overseas but is yet to find a job (pun on 海帶 hǎi dài)
  2. cf. 海歸 hǎi guī
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

海
hǎi · sea, ocean; maritime
待
dài · treat, entertain, receive; wait
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–4 · hai3 dai4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links2same-tone records2source references
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

海待 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. (neologism) a Chinese who has studied overseas and returned to China, but is unable to find employment in China

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

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

海待 · hai3 dai4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 65,391
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record海待 海待 [hai3 dai4] /student who has returned from overseas but is yet to find a job (pun on 海帶|海带[hai3 dai4])/cf. 海歸|海归[hai3 gui1]/