无 利 不 起 早

wú lì bù qǐ zǎodictionary entry

(saying) people don't get up early unless there is some benefit in doing so / won't lift a finger unless there's something in it for oneself

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-84c76b5f07835719. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

無利不起早 无利不起早 [wu2 li4 bu4 qi3 zao3] /(saying) people don't get up early unless there is some benefit in doing so; won't lift a finger unless there's something in it for oneself/

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: 無利不起早

无
mó
used in 南無|南无[nā mó]
wú
not to have / no / none / not / to lack / un- / -less
利
lì
sharp / favorable / advantage / benefit / profit / interest / to do good to / to benefit
Lì
surname Li
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
起
qǐ
to rise / to raise / to get up / to set out / to start / to appear / to launch / to initiate (action) / to draft / to establish / to get (from a depot or counter) / verb suffix, to start / starting from (a time, place, price etc) / classifier for occurrences or unpredictable events: case, instance / classifier for groups: batch, group
早
zǎo
early / morning / Good morning! / long ago / prematurely

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.