米已成炊

Mandarin · pinyin mǐ yǐ chéng chuī

Meanings

  1. lit. the rice has already been cooked (idiom)
  2. fig. what is done cannot be undone
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Characters in this entry

米
mǐ · hulled or husked uncooked rice
已
yǐ · already; finished; stop
成
chéng · completed, finished, fixed
炊
chuī · cook; meal
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–2–1 · mi3 yi3 cheng2 chui1

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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.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) the die is cast; what's done is done

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

米已成炊 · mi3 yi3 cheng2 chui1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 83,921
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record米已成炊 米已成炊 [mi3 yi3 cheng2 chui1] /lit. the rice has already been cooked (idiom)/fig. what is done cannot be undone/