又要马儿好，又要马儿不吃草
yòu​yào​mǎ​r​hǎo​yòu​yào​mǎ​r​bù​chī​cǎo

you can't have your cake and eat it too

  • created sense approved 又要马儿好，又要马儿不吃草/又要馬兒好，又要馬兒不吃草 · yòu​yào​mǎ​r​hǎo​yòu​yào​mǎ​r​bù​chī​cǎo · you can't have your cake and eat it too — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    又要马儿好，又要马儿不吃草 / 又要馬兒好，又要馬兒不吃草

    yòu​yào​mǎ​r​hǎo​yòu​yào​mǎ​r​bù​chī​cǎo

    you can't have your cake and eat it too

    literally 'you want the horse to be good, but you also want it not to eat grass'; used to describe someone who expects high performance or results without being willing to pay the necessary cost or effort

    又要 (literal) → 又要 · yòu​yào · both... and... 马 (literal) → 马/馬 · mǎ · horse 儿 (bound) → 儿/兒 · r · [erhua suffix] 好 (literal) → 好 · hǎo · good ， (non_chinese) 又要 (literal) → 又要 · yòu​yào · both... and... 马 (literal) → 马/馬 · mǎ · horse 儿 (bound) → 儿/兒 · r · [erhua suffix] 不 (literal) → 不 · bù · not 吃草 (literal) → 吃草 · chī​cǎo · to graze

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense