食荼卧棘 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to eat bitter fruit and lie on thorns ; to share the hard life of the common people

Character by character

• 食shífood; to eat
• 荼túa bitter vegetable
• 卧wòto crouch; to lie down
• 棘jíjujube tree; thorns, brambles

Idioms sharing a character

• 三旬九食 sān xún jiǔ shí
• 因噎废食 yīn yē fèi shí
• 宵衣旰食 xiāo yī gàn shí
• 寝食难安 qǐn shí nán ān
• 废寝忘食 fèi qǐn wàng shí
• 弱肉强食 ruò ròu qiáng shí
• 灭此朝食 miè cǐ zhāo shí
• 狂饮暴食 kuáng yǐn bào shí
• 率兽食人 shuài shòu shí rén
• 发愤忘食 fā fèn wàng shí

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.