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茶飯不思

简茶饭不思 · 繁茶飯不思

Mandarin · pinyin chá fàn bù sī

no thought for tea or rice (idiom); melancholic and suffering
to have no appetite

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Characters in this entry

茶: chá · tea
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
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

2–4–4–1 · cha2 fan4 bu4 si1

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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.

茶飯不思 · find source passages ↗ · 茶饭不思 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caa4 faan6 bat1 si1

Cantonese word readings for 茶飯不思. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be distressed or worried

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

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