發憤忘食

简 发愤忘食 · 繁 發憤忘食
Mandarin · pinyin fā fèn wàng shí

Meanings

  1. so dedicated as to forget one's meals (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

發
fā · issue, dispatch, send out, emit
憤
Look up this written character
忘
wàng · forget; neglect; miss, omit
食
shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184
发
fā · issue, dispatch, send out; hair
愤
fèn · resent, hate; indignant
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4–2 · fa1 fen4 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.

發憤忘食 · find source passages ↗ · 发愤忘食 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) to study or work hard, neglecting one's meals; be so immersed in work as to forget one's meals

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

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