武大郎吃毒药 / 武大郎吃毒藥

wǔ​dà​láng​chī​dú​yào

[xiehouyu] to be stuck in a fatal dilemma

Literally meaning "Wu Dalang drinks poison", a two-part allegorical saying where the second part is "die if you do, die if you don't"; used to describe a situation where one is doomed regardless of the choice made.

wǔ​da​láng​chī​dú​yào

武大郎 (literal) → 武大郎 · wǔ​dà​láng · Wu Dalang 吃 (literal) → 吃 · chī · to eat 毒药 (literal) → 毒药/毒藥 · dú​yào · poison

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

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM