食之無味,棄之可惜

简 食之无味,弃之可惜 · 繁 食之無味,棄之可惜
Mandarin · pinyin shí zhī wú wèi , qì zhī kě xī

Meanings

  1. lit. to be hardly worth eating, but it would still be a pity to discard it (idiom)
  2. fig. some things have little to no value, yet one is still reluctant to part with them
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Characters in this entry

食
shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
無
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味
wèi · taste, smell, odor; delicacy
棄
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可
kě · may, can, -able; possibly
惜
xī · pity, regret, rue, begrudge
无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
弃
qì · reject, abandon, discard
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

sik6 zi1 mou4 mei6 ,hei3 zi1 ho2 sik1

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

食之無味,棄之可惜 · shi2 zhi1 wu2 wei4 , qi4 zhi1 ke3 xi1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 119,848
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record食之無味,棄之可惜 食之无味,弃之可惜 [shi2 zhi1 wu2 wei4 , qi4 zhi1 ke3 xi1] /lit. to be hardly worth eating, but it would still be a pity to discard it (idiom)/fig. some things have little to no value, yet one is still reluctant to part with them/