看 人 下 菜 碟 儿

kàn rén xià cài dié rdictionary entry

(dialect) to treat sb according to their social status, relationship with them etc (idiom) / not to treat everyone equally favorably

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-fbf83ade5304500c. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

看人下菜碟兒 看人下菜碟儿 [kan4 ren2 xia4 cai4 die2 r5] /(dialect) to treat sb according to their social status, relationship with them etc (idiom)/not to treat everyone equally favorably/

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: 看人下菜碟兒

看
kān
to look after / to take care of / to watch / to guard
kàn
to see / to look at / to read / to watch / to visit / to call on / to consider / to regard as / to look after / to treat (a patient or illness) / to depend on / to feel (that) / (after a verb) to give it a try / to watch out for
人
rén
person / people / CL:個|个[gè],位[wèi],名[míng]
下
xià
down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action
菜
cài
vegetable / greens (CL:棵[kē]) / dish (of food) (CL:樣|样[yàng],道[dào],盤|盘[pán]) / (of one's skills etc) weak / poor / (coll.) (one's) type
碟
dié
dish / plate
儿
ér
child / son
r
non-syllabic diminutive suffix / retroflex final

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.