讨生活 (討生活)
tǎo shēng huó
Pinyin

Definition

讨生活 (討生活)
 - 
tǎo shēng huó
  1. to eke out a living
  2. to live from hand to mouth
  3. to drift aimlessly

Character Decomposition

Related Words (20)

人生
rén shēng
  1. 1 life (one's time on earth)
先生
Xiān sheng
  1. 1 Mister (Mr.)
女生
nǚ shēng
  1. 1 schoolgirl
  2. 2 female student
  3. 3 girl
学生
xué sheng
  1. 1 student
  2. 2 schoolchild
活
huó
  1. 1 to live
  2. 2 alive
  3. 3 living
  4. 4 work
  5. 5 workmanship

Idioms (20)

一回生二回熟
yī huí shēng èr huí shú
  1. 1 unfamiliar at first, but well accustomed soon enough (idiom)
一生一世
yī shēng yī shì
  1. 1 a whole lifetime (idiom); all my life
七窍生烟
qī qiào shēng yān
  1. 1 lit. spouting smoke through the seven orifices (idiom)
  2. 2 fig. to seethe with anger
三生有幸
sān shēng yǒu xìng
  1. 1 the blessing of three lifetimes (idiom)
  2. 2 (courteous language) it's my good fortune...
不知死活
bù zhī sǐ huó
  1. 1 to act recklessly (idiom)

Sample Sentences

是啊！当时上海连签证都不要，外国人能自由出入。好多在国外混得平平的人，在上海白手起家，成了大资本家。相比之下，国内来上海讨生活的人就艰苦多了。好多人都是生活在最底层的苦力或是小商贩。
shì a ！dāngshí Shànghǎi lián qiānzhèng dōu bù yào ，wàiguórén néng zìyóu chūrù 。hǎoduō zài guówài hùn de píngpíng de rén ，zài Shànghǎi báishǒuqǐjiā ，chéng le dà zīběnjiā 。xiāngbǐzhīxià ，guónèi lái Shànghǎi tǎo shēnghuó de rén jiù jiānkù duō le 。hǎoduō rén dōu shì shēnghuó zài zuì dīcéng de kǔlì huòshì xiǎo shāngfàn 。
Yeah! At that time, you didn't even need a visa to come to Shanghai. Foreigners could come and go at will. A lot of people who were just muddling along came here from abroad. Starting from scratch, they became big capitalists. In comparison, Chinese who came to Shanghai to make their living had it a lot tougher. A lot of people lived on the lowest level of society, doing hard manual labor or working as small merchants.
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