陰天打孩子
yīn​tiān​dǎ​hái​zi

[xiehouyu] idle anyway

  • created sense approved 阴天打孩子/陰天打孩子 · yīn​tiān​dǎ​hái​zi · [xiehouyu] idle anyway — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    阴天打孩子 / 陰天打孩子

    yīn​tiān​dǎ​hái​zi

    [xiehouyu] idle anyway

    A two-part allegorical saying ([[歇后语|歇後語|xie1 hou4 yu3]]) meaning "to have nothing better to do" or "might as well keep busy". The full phrase is "beating the kids on a cloudy day—might as well keep busy"; it originates from the idea of poor laborers who, unable to work outdoors due to rain, would take out their boredom and frustration on their children.

    阴天 (literal) → 阴天/陰天 · yīn​tiān · cloudy day 打 (literal) → 打 · dǎ · to hit 孩子 (literal) → 孩子 · hái​zi · child

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

    created sense