巧妇做不得无面馎饦
qiǎo​fù​zuò​bù​dé​wú​miàn​bó​tuō

even the cleverest housewife cannot make noodles without flour

  • created sense approved 巧妇做不得无面馎饦/巧婦做不得無麵餺飥 · qiǎo​fù​zuò​bù​dé​wú​miàn​bó​tuō · even the cleverest housewife cannot make noodles without flour — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    巧妇做不得无面馎饦 / 巧婦做不得無麵餺飥

    qiǎo​fù​zuò​bù​dé​wú​miàn​bó​tuō

    even the cleverest housewife cannot make noodles without flour

    it is impossible to accomplish a task without the necessary resources; synonymous with the phrase describing a housewife unable to cook without rice

    巧妇 (literal) → 巧妇/巧婦 · qiǎo​fù · clever housewife 做 (literal) → 做 · zuò · to make 不得 (bound) → 不得 · bu​de · [potential] 无 (literal) → 无/無 · wú · to not have 面 (literal) → 面/麵 · miàn · flour 馎饦 (literal) → 馎饦/餺飥 · bó​tuō · short wide noodles

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

    created sense