吃力不讨好 (吃力不討好)
chī lì bù tǎo hǎo
Pinyin
Definition
吃力不讨好 (吃力不討好)
-
- arduous and thankless task (idiom); strenuous and unrewarding
Character Decomposition
Related Words (20)
- 1 (negative prefix)
- 2 not
- 3 no
- 1 to eat
- 2 to consume
- 3 to eat at (a cafeteria etc)
- 4 to eradicate
- 5 to destroy
- 6 to absorb
- 7 to suffer
- 8 to stammer (Taiwan pr. for this sense is [jí])
- 1 good
- 2 well
- 3 proper
- 4 good to
- 5 easy to
- 6 very
- 7 so
- 8 (suffix indicating completion or readiness)
- 9 (of two people) close
- 10 on intimate terms
- 11 (after a personal pronoun) hello
- 1 not long (after)
- 2 before too long
- 3 soon
- 4 soon after
- 1 not only (... but also...)
Idioms (20)
一不做,二不休
- 1 don't do it, or don't rest (idiom); either give up, or go through to the end
- 2 Since we started, we must carry it through whatever happens.
- 3 in for a penny, in for a pound
一问三不知
- 1 lit. to reply "don't know" whatever the question (idiom)
- 2 fig. absolutely no idea of what's going on
- 3 complete ignorance
一尘不染
- 1 untainted by even a speck of dust (idiom); selfless and incorruptible
- 2 spotless
一字不提
- 1 to not mention a single word (about sth) (idiom)
一山不容二虎
- 1 lit. the mountain can't have two tigers (idiom)
- 2 fig. this town ain't big enough for the two of us
- 3 (of two rivals) to be fiercely competitive
Sample Sentences
先不说你们俩。后妈不好当,你对她严厉了,她会说你虐待她,对她宽松了,又会说你不管她。反正净说你坏话。当后妈就是吃力不讨好。
Don't worry about the two of you. There's nothing good about being a stepmother. If you're strict with her, she'll say you're abusing her. If you're easy on her, she'll say you don't care about her. Whatever you do, she'll speak poorly of you. Being a stepmother is a tireless job that gets you no respect.