喝西北风 (hē xī běi fēng) — to have nothing to eat; to suffer from hunger and poverty

Definition

A vivid, humorous idiom meaning 'to go hungry / have nothing to eat,' literally 'drink the northwest wind.' Used in casual speech to complain about poverty or warn that someone will starve.

idiom
to have nothing to eatto suffer from hunger and poverty

Examples

  • ，喝西北风。
    Yào shi zhǎo bú dào gōng zuò, wǒ men jiù dé hē xī běi fēng le.
    If we can't find a job, we'll have nothing to eat.
  • ，喝西北风。
    Tā zhěng tiān yóu shǒu hào xián, zǒng yǒu yì tiān huì hē xī běi fēng.
    He loafs around all day; one day he'll have nothing to eat.
  • ，喝西北风。
    Lián fàn dōu chī bù bǎo, zhēn de shì hē xī běi fēng a.
    Can't even get enough to eat — we're really starving.

Origin

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
曷
曷hé喝hē
Same sound today

The 口 part is a mouth. The 曷 part gives the sound.

Open 喝 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 西 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The form 北 shows two people standing back to back. It originally meant 'back'.

Open 北 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 风 →

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