The Chinese word for to eat is
吃
Chinese Definition
| eat | |
| 1. 动词. 吃、食 |
Translations for eat and their definitions
| 吃 | |
| 1. to eat; to consume | |
| 他 很 喜歡 吃飯。 - He loves to eat. | |
| 你 吃飯 了 嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting) | |
| 你 吃 過 飯 嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting) | |
| 儂 飯 吃 過 了 ?？ - tr=3non&3ve&4qiq gu leq&0vaq, Have you eaten? (also a greeting), SH | |
| 喫jaak3 屎 啦 你！ - Eat shit! | |
| 2. to live on | |
| 3. to suffer; to endure; to bear | |
| 吃苦 - to endure hardship | |
| 吃虧 - to suffer losses, to be at a disadvantage | |
| 他 胸口 吃 了 一 槍。 - He took a bullet in the chest. | |
| 4. to exhaust; to be a strain | |
| Chrome 吃 內存。 - Chrome is a memory hog. | |
| 5. to drink | |
| 6. (board games) to capture | |
| 7. (mahjong) to chow | |
| 8. =====Usage notes===== | |
| 9. to stammer; to stutter; to falter | |
| 口吃 - to stammer, to stutter | |
| 10. Only used in 吃吃 (qīqī) | |
| 11. (Hokkien) Alternative form of 食 (-) |
| 食 | |
| 1. (literary or Cantonese, Hakka) to eat; to have a meal; to take in | |
| 你 食 咗 飯 未 呀？ - Have you eaten yet? | |
| 中國人 係 揸 筷子 食飯 嘅。 - Chinese people use chopsticks to eat with. | |
| 上 星sing1期kei4日 我 同 啲 朋友 一齊 食 晚飯。 - Last Sunday, I ate dinner together with my friends. | |
| 2. (dialectal Cantonese, Hakka) to drink | |
| 3. (Cantonese, Hakka, Min) to smoke | |
| 食煙 - sik6 jin1 - to smoke, C | |
| 4. (Cantonese, board games) to capture | |
| 玩 盲棋kei4-2 嘅 時候，車geoi1 可以 食 馬、炮paau3、士、象、卒zeot1。 - When playing blind chess, a rook can capture knights, cannons, advisors, bishops or pawns. | |
| 5. (Cantonese, mahjong) Short for 食糊, gloss=to win | |
| 6. (Cantonese, figuratively) to receive; to accept; to absorb | |
| 硬食 - ngaang6 sik6 - , C | |
| 7. (Cantonese) to hit on; to flirt | |
| 食女 - sik6 neoi5-2 - , C | |
| 8. =====Usage notes===== | |
| 9. (Coastal Min) to eat; to have a meal | |
| 食飯 (chia̍h-pn̄g) - to eat rice; to have a meal, MN | |
| 汝 食 飽 未？ (Lí chia̍h pá bōe?) - Have you eaten yet?, MN | |
| 10. (Coastal Min) to drink | |
| 食茶 (ziah8 tê5) - to drink tea, MN-T | |
| 食 燒酒 (chia̍h sio-chiú) - to drink rice wine, MN | |
| 11. (Coastal Min) to take in; to inhale | |
| 食薰 (chia̍h-hun) - to inhale smoke; to smoke, MN | |
| 12. (Hokkien, Teochew) to embezzle (money) | |
| 食鐳lui (chia̍h-lui) - to embezzle money, MN | |
| 13. (Hokkien, mahjong) to chow | |
| 14. (Teochew, Penang Hokkien) cuisine | |
| Synonyms: 菜 | |
| 廣東 食 ((rftranslit, zhx-teo) - Guangdong food, MN-T) | |
| 15. =====Usage notes===== | |
| 16. (Inland Min) Alternative form of 饁 (-, t=to eat) | |
| 酈 食yì-其jī (Lì Yìjī) - Li Yiji (an advisor to Liu Bang) |
| 吃飯 | |
| 1. v. to eat | |
| 用 筷子zi 吃飯 - to eat with chopsticks | |
| 他 很 喜歡 吃飯。 - He loves to eat. | |
| 你 吃飯 了 嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting) | |
| 你 吃 過 飯 嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting) | |
| 你 吃飯 了 沒有？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting) | |
| 2. v. to have a meal; to eat; to dine | |
| 我 想 約 你 明天 一起 去 吃飯，不 知道 你 有 沒有 時間。 - I'd like to invite you out to have a meal tomorrow, if you have time. | |
| 你們 收拾shi 收拾shi，準備 吃飯 嘍。 - Pack up you lot and get ready to eat. | |
| 3. v. to make a living | |
| 你 靠 什麼 吃飯？ - What do you do for a living? | |
| 我 現在 失業，除了 交 房租，還 要 吃飯 啊，壓力 大 啊。 - I'm out of work at the moment. Apart from paying rent I also have to make a living; it's very stressful. | |
| 4. usage. Chinese people sometimes use the sentence:你 吃飯 了 嗎？ - Have you eaten? as a greeting. Its function is roughly equivalent to How’s it going? or How are you? in English. |
| 吃饭 | |
| 1. Simplified form of 吃飯 |
Dictionary entries from Wiktionary