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吃水不忘掘井人

chī shuǐ bù wàng jué jǐng réndictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
Drinking the water of a well, one should never forget who dug it. (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-a4316b682f0e269e. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

吃水不忘掘井人 吃水不忘掘井人 [chi1 shui3 bu4 wang4 jue2 jing3 ren2] /Drinking the water of a well, one should never forget who dug it. (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.

  • 吃
    chī

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

  • 水
    shuǐ

    water / (after a name) ... River / to swim (used mostly in 會水|会水[huì shuǐ] and 水性[shuǐ xìng]) / (coll.) lacking in substance / shoddy / (bound form) additional cost / extra income / classifier for washings of a garment

    Shuǐ

    surname Shui / Shui ethnic group

  • 不
    bù

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

  • 忘
    wàng

    to forget / to overlook / to neglect

  • 掘
    jué

    to dig

  • 井
    jǐng

    a well / CL:口[kǒu] / neat / orderly

    Jǐng

    Jing, one of the 28 constellations of Chinese astronomy / surname Jing

  • 人

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.