羅雀掘鼠
luó​què​jué​shǔ

to scrape by

  • created sense approved 罗雀掘鼠/羅雀掘鼠 · luó​què​jué​shǔ · to scrape by — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    罗雀掘鼠 / 羅雀掘鼠

    luó​què​jué​shǔ

    to scrape by

    Literally "to net sparrows and dig out rats"; describes trying every possible means to obtain food during a famine or straining to scrape money together in times of extreme poverty.

    罗 (literal) → 罗/羅 · luó · net 雀 (literal) → 雀 · què · sparrow 掘 (literal) → 掘 · jué · to dig 鼠 (literal) → 鼠 · shǔ · rat

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

    created sense