饿
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hungry; to starve (sb)
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 饿 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
To want 我 food 饣; 我 also provides the pronunciation
How to remember it
hungry · Heisig RSH #2526
食 food + miser
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 饿
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 撑死胆大的，饿死胆小的 | fullness for the bold, famine for the timid (idiom) | |
| 老天爷饿不死瞎家雀 | lit. heaven won't let the sparrows go hungry (idiom); fig. don't give up hope; if you toug… | |
| 饱人不知饿人饥 | The well-fed cannot know how the starving suffer (idiom). | |
| 饱汉不知饿汉饥 | The well-fed cannot know how the starving suffer (idiom). | |
| 饿虎扑食 | like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey | |
| 饿肚子 | to go hungry; to starve | |
| 饿死 | to starve to death; to be very hungry | |
| 解饿 | to relieve hunger | |
| 饿鬼 | sb who is always hungry; glutton; (Buddhism) hungry ghost | |
| 受冻挨饿 | see 挨餓受凍|挨饿受冻[ai2 e4 shou4 dong4] | |
| 挨冻受饿 | see 挨餓受凍|挨饿受冻[ai2 e4 shou4 dong4] | |
| 挨饿受冻 | (idiom) to go cold and hungry | |
| 穷饿 | exhausted and hungry | |
| 饿莩载道 | starved corpses fill the roads (idiom); state of famine | |
| 忍饥挨饿 | starving; famished | |
| 挨饿 | to go hungry; to endure starvation; famished | |
| 挨饥抵饿 | to suffer from hunger | |
| 饿扁 | (coll.) to be famished; ravenously hungry | |
| 饿殍载道 | starved corpses fill the roads (idiom); state of famine | |
| 饿莩遍野 | starving people everywhere (idiom); a state of famine |