自讨苦吃 — Chinese idiom
自讨苦吃
zì tǎo kǔ chī
Traditional: 自討苦吃
Meaning
- to ask for trouble; to make a rod for one's own back
Character by character
- 自zìself; private, personal; from
- 讨tǎoto haggle, to discuss; to demand, to ask for
- 苦kǔbitter; hardship, suffering
- 吃chīto eat; to drink; to suffer, to endure, to bear
Idioms sharing a character
- 不敢自专 bù gǎn zì zhuān
- 不由自主 bù yóu zì zhǔ
- 不自量力 bù zì liàng lì
- 不言自明 bù yán zì míng
- 任其自然 rèn qí zì rán
- 作茧自缚 zuò jiǎn zì fù
- 优游自得 yōu yóu zì dé
- 出自肺腑 chū zì fèi fǔ
- 刚愎自用 gāng bì zì yòng
- 卑以自牧 bēi yǐ zì mù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.