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癩蛤蟆想吃天鵝肉

简癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉 · 繁癩蛤蟆想吃天鵝肉

Mandarin · pinyin lài há ma xiǎng chī tiān é ròu

lit. the toad wants to eat swan meat (idiom)
fig. to try to punch above one's weight

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Characters in this entry

癩: Look up this written character
蛤: há · clam
蟆: má · frog, toad
想: xiǎng · think, speculate, plan, consider
吃: chī · eat; drink; suffer, endure, bear
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
鵝: Look up this written character
肉: ròu · flesh; meat; Kangxi radical 130
癞: lài · leprosy, scabies, mange; shoddy
鹅: é · goose

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–5–3–1–1–2–4 · lai4 ha2 ma5 xiang3 chi1 tian1 e2 rou4

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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.

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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

to be carried away by one's wishful thinking and overestimate one's abilities; to pursue something that is out of one's league

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

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