DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

寅吃卯糧

简寅吃卯粮 · 繁寅吃卯糧

Mandarin · pinyin yín chī mǎo liáng

lit. eating away next year's food in advance
fig. to dip into the next month's check
live now, pay later

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

寅: yín · to respect, reverence; respectfully; third earthly branch
吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
卯: mǎo · fourth earthly branch
糧: Look up this written character
粮: liáng · food, grain, provisions

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–1–3–2 · yin2 chi1 mao3 liang2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

寅吃卯糧 · find source passages ↗ · 寅吃卯粮 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(figurative) to prematurely overconsume; unable to make both ends meet

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

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