讨好卖乖 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to curry favor by showing obeisance

Character by character

• 讨tǎoto haggle, to discuss; to demand, to ask for
• 好hǎogood, excellent, fine; proper, suitable; well
• 卖màito sell; to betray; to show off
• 乖guāiobedient, well-behaved; clever

Idioms sharing a character

• 南征北讨 nán zhēng běi tǎo
• 东征西讨 dōng zhēng xī tǎo
• 东讨西征 dōng tǎo xī zhēng
• 自讨苦吃 zì tǎo kǔ chī
• 不怀好意 bù huái hǎo yì
• 不知好歹 bù zhī hǎo dǎi
• 不识好歹 bù shí hǎo dǎi
• 做好做歹 zuò hǎo zuò dǎi
• 公诸同好 gōng zhū tóng hào
• 各有所好 gè yǒu suǒ hào

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