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炒冷飯

简炒冷饭 · 繁炒冷飯

Mandarin · pinyin chǎo lěng fàn

to stir-fry leftover rice
fig. to rehash the same story
to serve up the same old product

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Characters in this entry

炒: chǎo · fry, saute, roast, boil, cook
冷: lěng · cold, cool; lonely
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
饭: fàn · cooked rice; food, meal

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4 · chao3 leng3 fan4

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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.

炒冷飯 · find source passages ↗ · 炒冷饭 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caau2 laang5 faan6

Cantonese word readings for 炒冷飯. 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.

verb

(colloquial, idiomatic) to do something over and over again; to rehash
(Shanghainese) to bring up the past

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

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