老米饭捏杀不成团
lǎo​mǐ​fàn​niē​shā​bù​chéng​tuán

old rice cannot be kneaded into a ball

  • created sense approved 老米饭捏杀不成团/老米飯捏殺不成團 · lǎo​mǐ​fàn​niē​shā​bù​chéng​tuán · old rice cannot be kneaded into a ball — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    老米饭捏杀不成团 / 老米飯捏殺不成團

    lǎo​mǐ​fàn​niē​shā​bù​chéng​tuán

    old rice cannot be kneaded into a ball

    Rice cooked from aged grains lacks stickiness and cannot be shaped into a ball; used as a metaphor to describe people who lack mutual affection and cannot be forced to live or work together successfully.

    老米 (literal) → 老米 · lǎo​mǐ · old rice 饭 (literal) → 饭/飯 · fàn · cooked rice 捏 (literal) → 捏 · niē · to mold 杀 (literal) → 杀/殺 · shā · [extremely] 不成 (literal) → 不成 · bù​chéng · [unable to] 团 (literal) → 团/團 · tuán · to roll into a ball

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

    created sense