挑肥拣瘦 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to cherry-pick; to pick the best parts for oneself; to be choosy

Character by character

• 挑tiāoto select, to choose; picky, choosy; a load
• 肥féifat, plump, obese; fertile
• 拣jiǎnto choose, to select; to gather, to pick up
• 瘦shòuthin, lean, emaciated; meager

Idioms sharing a character

• 挑拨是非 tiǎo bō shì fēi
• 挑拨离间 tiǎo bō lí jiàn
• 挑灯夜战 tiǎo dēng yè zhàn
• 目挑心招 mù tiǎo xīn zhāo
• 损公肥私 sǔn gōng féi sī
• 脑满肠肥 nǎo mǎn cháng féi
• 食言而肥 shí yán ér féi
• 饫甘餍肥 yù gān yàn féi
• 披沙拣金 pī shā jiǎn jīn
• 拣佛烧香 jiǎn fó shāo xiāng

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