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會哭的孩子有奶吃

简会哭的孩子有奶吃 · 繁會哭的孩子有奶吃

Mandarin · pinyin huì kū de hái zi yǒu nǎi chī

lit. a child who cries gets to feed at the breast (idiom)
fig. the squeaky wheel gets the grease

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Characters in this entry

會: huì · to assemble, meet together; a meeting; an organization
哭: kū · weep, cry, wail
的: de · possessive, adjectival suffix
孩: hái · baby, child; children
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
有: yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
奶: nǎi · milk; woman's breasts; nurse
吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
会: huì · assemble, meet together; meeting

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–5–2–5–3–3–1 · hui4 ku1 de5 hai2 zi5 you3 nai3 chi1

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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.

會哭的孩子有奶吃 · find source passages ↗ · 会哭的孩子有奶吃 · 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.

proverb

the squeaky wheel gets the grease

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

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