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敬酒不吃吃罰酒

简敬酒不吃吃罚酒 · 繁敬酒不吃吃罰酒

Mandarin · pinyin jìng jiǔ bù chī chī fá jiǔ

lit. to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit (idiom)
fig. to turn down a request only to be forced later to comply with it under pressure

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Characters in this entry

敬: jìng · respect, honor; respectfully
酒: jiǔ · wine, spirits, liquor, alcoholic beverage
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
罰: Look up this written character
罚: fá · penalty, fine; punish, penalize

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–1–1–2–3 · jing4 jiu3 bu4 chi1 chi1 fa2 jiu3

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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.

敬酒不吃吃罰酒 · find source passages ↗ · 敬酒不吃吃罚酒 · find source passages ↗

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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 forced to do something after initially turning down a request to do that thing

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

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