DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
瘦死的駱駝比馬大
简 瘦死的骆驼比马大 · 繁 瘦死的駱駝比馬大Mandarin · pinyin shòu sǐ de luò tuo bǐ mǎ dà
Meanings
- lit. even a scrawny camel is bigger than a horse (idiom)
- fig. even after suffering a loss, a rich person is still better off than ordinary people
- a cultured person may come down in the world, but he is still superior to the common people
Characters in this entry
- 瘦
- shòu · thin, emaciated, lean; meager
- 死
- sǐ · die; dead; death
- 的
- de · possessive, adjectival suffix
- 駱
- Look up this written character
- 駝
- Look up this written character
- 比
- bǐ · to compare, liken; comparison; than; hexagram ䷇
- 馬
- Look up this written character
- 大
- dà · big, great, vast, large, high
- 骆
- luò · a white horse with black mane; a camel
- 驼
- tuó · a camel; humpbacked; to carry on the back
- 马
- mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4–3–5–4–5–3–3–4 · shou4 si3 de5 luo4 tuo5 bi3 ma3 da4
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
9character links
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- (figurative) Although a rich family has become less rich than previous, they are still richer than a poor family.
- (figurative) Although someone/something is inferior compared with oneself's past or fellows, the one is still better than people/things of one's inferior rank.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack