📖 Meaning
This idiom means helping wicked people do evil deeds, acting as an accomplice to wrongdoers. It describes someone who assists a bad person in harming others for personal gain. It is synonymous with the idiom 帮虎吃食.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom comes from the autobiographical novel 《高玉宝》 by the Chinese writer Gao Yubao, first published in the 1950s under the People's Republic of China era, not from an ancient dynasty. In Chapter Four of the novel, the character 万瞎子 (Blind Wan) is described as a man who constantly flatters and fawns over the local 保长 (village chief under the old rural administration), while extorting and blackmailing the poor peasants. The narrator says he is the most capable of 'helping the dog eat food', meaning he eagerly does dirty work for those in power to oppress ordinary people. The idiom thus entered common usage as a vivid folk expression for complicity in evil.
💡 Example Usage
他为讨上司欢心，甘心帮狗吃食，欺压无辜百姓。
To curry favor with his superiors, he willingly helped the dog eat its food, bullying innocent commoners.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 帮狗吃食
- Pinyin: bāng gǒu chī shí
- Literal Translation: help, dog, eat, food
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4