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廢寢忘食

简废寝忘食 · 繁廢寢忘食

Mandarin · pinyin fèi qǐn wàng shí

(idiom) to skip one's sleep and meals; to be completely wrapped up in one's work

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Characters in this entry

廢: Look up this written character
寢: Look up this written character
忘: wàng · forget; neglect; miss, omit
食: shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184
废: fèi · abrogate, terminate, discard
寝: qǐn · sleep, rest; bed chamber

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–2 · fei4 qin3 wang4 shi2

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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.

廢寢忘食 · find source passages ↗ · 废寝忘食 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

fai3 cam2 mong4 sik6

Cantonese word readings for 廢寢忘食. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be completely wrapped up in one's work and skip one's sleep and meals

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

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