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老牛吃嫩草

lǎo niú chī nèn cǎodictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. an old cow eats young grass (idiom) / fig. a May-December relationship / a romance where the man is significantly older than the woman
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-94528c589f12422b. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

老牛吃嫩草 老牛吃嫩草 [lao3 niu2 chi1 nen4 cao3] /lit. an old cow eats young grass (idiom)/fig. a May-December relationship/a romance where the man is significantly older than the woman/

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.

  • 老
    lǎo

    prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity / old (of people) / venerable (person) / experienced / of long standing / always / all the time / of the past / very / outdated / (of meat etc) tough

  • 牛
    niú

    ox / cow / bull / CL:條|条[tiáo],頭|头[tóu] / newton (abbr. for 牛頓|牛顿[niú dùn]) / (slang) awesome

    Niú

    surname Niu

  • 吃
    chī

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

  • 嫩
    nèn

    young and tender / (of food) tender / lightly cooked / (of color) light / (of a person) inexperienced / unskilled

  • 草
    cǎo

    grass / straw / manuscript / draft (of a document) / careless / rough / CL:棵[kē],撮[zuǒ],株[zhū],根[gēn]

    cào

    See the full entry for source details.

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.