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吃牢飯

简吃牢饭 · 繁吃牢飯

Mandarin · pinyin chī láo fàn

(coll.) to serve time in prison; (Tw) (sarcastic) to live off the prison system (getting free meals)

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Characters in this entry

吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
牢: láo · prison; stable, pen; secure
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
饭: fàn · cooked rice; food, meal

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4 · chi1 lao2 fan4

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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.

吃牢飯 · find source passages ↗ · 吃牢饭 · 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

(figurative) to do prison time

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

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