DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

食不果腹

Mandarin · pinyin shí bù guǒ fù

lit. food not filling the stomach (idiom)
fig. poverty-stricken

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

食: shí · eat; meal; food; Kangxi radical 184
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
果: guǒ · fruit; result
腹: fù · stomach, belly, abdomen; inside

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–4–3–4 · shi2 bu4 guo3 fu4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

食不果腹 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sik6 bat1 gwo2 fuk1

Cantonese word readings for 食不果腹. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to always be hungry as one is impoverished

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

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