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外食

Mandarin · pinyin wài shí

to eat out
food brought in from outside; food not purchased within the premises

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外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
食: shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2 · wai4 shi2

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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.

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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.

noun

eating out (dining at a restaurant)
outside food (food bought or brought in from the outside of the establishment)

verb

to eat out; to dine out (to dine at a restaurant)

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

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