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吃人不吐骨頭

简吃人不吐骨头 · 繁吃人不吐骨頭

Mandarin · pinyin chī rén bù tǔ gǔ tóu

ruthless
vicious and greedy

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Characters in this entry

吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
吐: tǔ · vomit, spew out, cough up
骨: gǔ · bone; skeleton; frame, framework; Kangxi radical 188
頭: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
头: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3–3–2 · chi1 ren2 bu4 tu3 gu3 tou2

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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.

吃人不吐骨頭 · find source passages ↗ · 吃人不吐骨头 · find source passages ↗

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(derogatory, figurative) to be extremely ruthless and greedy

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

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