DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

不聽老人言，吃虧在眼前

简不听老人言，吃亏在眼前 · 繁不聽老人言，吃虧在眼前

Mandarin · pinyin bù tīng lǎo rén yán , chī kuī zài yǎn qián

(idiom) ignore your elders at your peril

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
聽: tīng · hear, listen; understand; obey
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
虧: Look up this written character
在: zài · be at, in, on; consist in, rest
眼: yǎn · eye; eyelet, hole, opening
前: qián · in front, forward; preceding
听: tīng · hear; understand; obey, comply
亏: kuī · lose, fail; damage; deficient

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

11character links

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.

不聽老人言，吃虧在眼前 · find source passages ↗ · 不听老人言，吃亏在眼前 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗