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吃大戶

简吃大户 · 繁吃大戶

Mandarin · pinyin chī dà hù

to plunder the homes of the wealthy for food (in times of famine)
(of sb who has no income) to rely on others
to demand a "contribution" or "loan" from a business or wealthy individual

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Characters in this entry

吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
戶: Look up this written character
户: hù · door; family

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4 · chi1 da4 hu4

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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.

吃大戶 · find source passages ↗ · 吃大户 · 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.

verb

(archaic) to go uninvited into the homes of landlords to eat their food

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

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