吃官司 (chī guān sī) — (colloquial) to be sued, to be involved in a lawsuit

Definition

A colloquial idiom meaning 'to be sued / get tangled up in a lawsuit.' The verb 吃 is used figuratively here (literally 'eat') — this is spoken, informal register, not legal writing.

verb
(colloquial) to be suedto be involved in a lawsuit

Examples

  • 吃官司。
    Tā yīn wèi qiàn zhài chī guān sī le.
    He got sued because of debt.
  • ，。
    Tā chī guò yí cì guān si, suǒ yǐ xiàn zài hěn xiǎo xīn.
    He has been sued once, so now he is very careful.
  • 。
    Tā yīn wèi zhè jiàn shì chī le yì chǎng guān si.
    He got involved in a lawsuit over this matter.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

吃chīeat
官司lawsuit
官guānofficial司sīoffice
联合Side by side

吃 (eat) and 官司 (lawsuit, from 官 official and 司 office) mean to be sued.

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
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 →

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

  • 宀宀mián
  • 𠂤𠂤𠂤

官 pairs 宀, a roof, with 𠂤, rooms beneath it, to depict an official building.

Open 官 →

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

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.

Open 司 →

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