望梅止渴 — Chinese idiom
望梅止渴
wàng méi zhǐ kě
Meaning
- lit. to quench one's thirst by thinking of plums
- fig. to console oneself with illusions
Character by character
- 望wàngto expect, to hope, to look forward to
- 梅méiplum; prune; surname
- 止zhǐto stop, to halt; to detain; to desist
- 渴kěthirsty, parched; to yearn, to pine for
Idioms sharing a character
- 一望无垠 yī wàng wú yín
- 一望无际 yī wàng wú jì
- 一望而知 yī wàng ér zhī
- 不孚众望 bù fú zhòng wàng
- 不负众望 bù fù zhòng wàng
- 功高望重 gōng gāo wàng zhòng
- 名门望族 míng mén wàng zú
- 喜出望外 xǐ chū wàng wài
- 大喜过望 dà xǐ guò wàng
- 巴高望上 bā gāo wàng shàng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.