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Chinese/Dictionary entry

好死不如赖活着

hǎo sǐ bù rú lài huó zhedictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
better a bad life than a good death (idiom)
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-685c180644bda725. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

好死不如賴活著 好死不如赖活着 [hao3 si3 bu4 ru2 lai4 huo2 zhe5] /better a bad life than a good death (idiom)/

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: 好死不如賴活著

  • 好
    hǎo

    good / appropriate / proper / all right! / (before a verb) easy to / (before a verb) good to / (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so / (verb complement indicating completion) / (of two people) close / on intimate terms / (after a form of address) hello

    hào

    to be fond of / to have a tendency to / to be prone to

  • 死
    sǐ

    to die / impassable / uncrossable / inflexible / rigid / extremely / damned

  • 不
    bù

    no / not so / (bound form) not / un-

  • 如
    rú

    as / as if / such as

  • 赖
    lài

    to depend on / to hang on in a place / bad / to renege (on promise) / to disclaim / to rat (on debts) / rascally / to blame / to put the blame on

    Lài

    surname Lai / (Tw) (coll.) LINE messaging app

  • 活
    huó

    to live / alive / living / work / workmanship

  • 着
    zhāo

    a move in chess (Taiwan pr. [zhuó]) / trick / tactic / (dialect) okay / all right / (dialect) to put in / to add

    zháo

    to touch / to come in contact with / to feel / to be affected by / to catch fire / to burn / (coll.) to fall asleep / (after a verb) hitting the mark / succeeding in

    zhe

    aspect particle indicating action in progress or ongoing state

    zhuó

    to wear (clothes) / to contact / to use / to apply

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.