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吃哑巴亏

chī yǎ ba kuīdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
to be forced to suffer in silence / unable to speak of one's bitter suffering
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-5d0154e27ed12dc0. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

吃啞巴虧 吃哑巴亏 [chi1 ya3 ba5 kui1] /to be forced to suffer in silence/unable to speak of one's bitter suffering/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 吃啞巴虧

  • 吃
    chī

    to eat; to consume / to eat at (a cafeteria etc) / to eradicate; to destroy / to absorb / to suffer (shock, injury, defeat etc)

  • 哑
    yā

    (onom.) sound of cawing / sound of infant learning to talk

    yǎ

    mute; dumb; incapable of speech / (of a voice) hoarse; husky / (bound form) (of a bullet, bomb etc) dud

  • 巴
    bā

    to long for / to wish / to cling to / to stick to / sth that sticks / close to / next to / spread open / informal abbr. for bus 巴士[bā shì] / bar (unit of pressure) / nominalizing suffix on certain nouns, such as 尾巴[wěi ba], tail

    Bā

    Ba, a state during the Zhou dynasty (in present-day Chongqing and the eastern part of Sichuan) / the east of Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality / surname Ba / (bound form) abbr. for 巴勒斯坦[Bā lè sī tǎn] (Palestine), 巴基斯坦[Bā jī sī tǎn] (Pakistan) or 巴西[Bā xī] (Brazil)

  • 亏
    kuī

    to lose (money); to have a deficit / to be deficient / to treat unfairly / luckily; fortunately; thanks to / (used to introduce an ironic remark about sb who has fallen short of expectations)

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.