TongTong
Sign in

大吃大喝 (dà chī dà hē) — to eat and drink extravagantly; to indulge in lavish feasts (often with wasteful spending)

Definition

A vivid verb-object phrase for eating and drinking lavishly, often with a wasteful or excessive connotation. Different from simply 吃饭 — the 大∼大∼ pattern emphasizes indulgence and excess.

verb
to eat and drink extravagantlyto indulge in lavish feasts (often with wasteful spending)

Examples

  • 大吃大喝，。
    Tā měi gè zhōu mò dōu dà chī dà hē, bǎ qián dōu huā guāng le.
    He spends every weekend eating and drinking lavishly, spending all his money.
  • 大吃大喝，。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī yòng gōng kuǎn dà chī dà hē, bèi diào chá le.
    This company used public funds for lavish feasts and is being investigated.
  • ，大吃大喝，。
    Chūn jié shí, dà jiā jù zài yì qǐ dà chī dà hē, fēi cháng kāi xīn.
    During Spring Festival, everyone gets together to eat and drink heartily, very happy.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

大吃eat greatly
大dàgreatly吃chīeat
偏正Modifier + head
大喝drink greatly
大dàgreatly喝hēdrink
偏正Modifier + head

大吃 and 大喝 run in parallel: 大 conveys greatly, 吃 is eating, and 喝 is drinking.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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
乞
乞qǐ吃chī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

吃 combines 口 (mouth) with 乞, which gives the sound; it originally wrote a word meaning to stutter.

Open 吃 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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 →
Appears in
Food (General)Idioms & Set Phrases

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.