好死不如賴活著

简 好死不如赖活着 · 繁 好死不如賴活著
Mandarin · pinyin hǎo sǐ bù rú lài huó zhe

Meanings

  1. better a bad life than a good death (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

好
hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
死
sǐ · die; dead; death
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
如
rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
賴
Look up this written character
活
huó · live, exist, survive; lively
著
zhù · zhe · manifest; (Cant.) to wear
赖
lài · rely, depend on; accuse falsely
着
zhe · make move, take action
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4–2–4–2–5 · hao3 si3 bu4 ru2 lai4 huo2 zhe5

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

hou2 sei2 bat1 jyu4 laai6 wut6 zoek6

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

proverb

  1. it’s better to live a wretched existence than to experience a good death; better a bad life than a good death; a living ass is better than a dead lion

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

好死不如賴活著 · hao3 si3 bu4 ru2 lai4 huo2 zhe5
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 30,152
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record好死不如賴活著 好死不如赖活着 [hao3 si3 bu4 ru2 lai4 huo2 zhe5] /better a bad life than a good death (idiom)/