笑 贫 不 笑 娼

xiào pín bù xiào chāngdictionary entry

the notion in society that it's better to get ahead in the world by abandoning one's scruples than to suffer poverty / lit. despising poverty but not prostitution (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-8290f304e5f6ba5f. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

笑貧不笑娼 笑贫不笑娼 [xiao4 pin2 bu4 xiao4 chang1] /the notion in society that it's better to get ahead in the world by abandoning one's scruples than to suffer poverty/lit. despising poverty but not prostitution (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: 笑貧不笑娼

笑
xiào
to laugh / to smile / to laugh at
贫
pín
poor / inadequate / deficient / garrulous
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
笑
xiào
to laugh / to smile / to laugh at
娼
chāng
prostitute

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.