DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

天上不會掉餡餅

简天上不会掉馅饼 · 繁天上不會掉餡餅

Mandarin · pinyin tiān shàng bù huì diào xiàn bǐng

there is no such thing as a free lunch (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
會: huì · to assemble, meet together; a meeting; an organization
掉: diào · turn, move; shake, wag; drop down
餡: Look up this written character
餅: bǐng · rice-cakes, biscuits
会: huì · assemble, meet together; meeting
馅: xiàn · filling, stuffing; secret
饼: bǐng · rice-cakes, biscuits

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4–4–4–4–3 · tian1 shang4 bu4 hui4 diao4 xian4 bing3

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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.

天上不會掉餡餅 · find source passages ↗ · 天上不会掉馅饼 · find source passages ↗

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