Dictionary › 吃苦

吃苦

chī kǔ

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 level 7-9 2-character word

吃苦 (chī kǔ) means "to bear hardships". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 吃苦 means

1. to bear hardships

The characters in 吃苦

• 吃chīto eat; to consume; to eat at (a cafeteria etc); to eradicate; to destroy
• 苦kǔbitter; hardship; pain

Example sentences

• 好奇会吃苦头的。
  Hàoqí huì chīkǔtou de.
  Curiosity killed the cat.
• 我们上班时的情绪，就像坐过山车一样 ﹣ 老板脸上一现出不悦的神色，我们就要吃苦头；老板脸上有了笑容，我们才能松一口气。这样的工作，我不想再干下去了。
  Wǒmen shàngbān shí de qíngxù, jiù xiàng zuò guòshānchē yīyàng ﹣ lǎobǎn liǎn shàng yī xiàn chū bù yuè de shénsè, wǒmen jiùyào chīkǔtou; lǎobǎn liǎn shàng yǒule xiàoróng, wǒmen cáinéng sōngyīkǒuqì. zhèyàng de gōngzuò, wǒ bù xiǎng zài gàn xiàqù le.
  I can't keep this up. It's an emotional roller coaster around here and all we have to do is look at the boss's face to know whether everybody is going to be happy or sad.
• 如果人类的物质生活一年比一年富足，蛋糕的推出越来越精致，科技越来越便利，同时没有前人种树就不可能有后人乘凉，那么我便可以肯定“富有”的人生，肯定是由热爱吃苦的前辈，那群带有苦味的食客开创出来的。
  If humanity's material life becomes richer year by year, cakes become more and more elaborate, technology becomes more and more convenient, and at the same time, without earlier generations planting trees, later generations would not be able to enjoy their shade, then I am sure that the "rich" life must've been brought about by our industrious forefathers, those who were unafraid to taste the bitterness of hardship.

Words starting with 吃苦

• 吃苦耐劳chī kǔ nài láohardworking and enduring hardships (idiom)
• 吃苦头chī kǔ touto suffer; to suffer for one's actions; to pay dearly

Words containing 吃苦

• 小洞不补大洞吃苦xiǎo dòng bù bǔ dà dòng chī kǔA small hole not plugged will make you suffer a big hole (idiom)…

Where 吃苦 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · chēng–chí (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read chī kǔ correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.