📖 Meaning
Refers to not having enough food to satisfy one's hunger; describes a life of extreme poverty and deprivation. It is synonymous with 食不果腹 and conveys the hardship of barely scraping by without adequate sustenance.
📜 Origin Story
No specific classical source is recorded for this idiom. It is a variant of the more common expression 食不果腹, which appears in ancient texts describing the plight of the poor. The phrase captures the universal experience of hunger caused by poverty, passed down through vernacular usage rather than a single literary origin.
💡 Example Usage
战乱年代，百姓食不充饥，生活极为艰难。
During the years of war, the common people could not get enough food to fill their stomachs, and life was extremely harsh.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 食不充饥
- Pinyin: shí bù chōng jī
- Literal Translation: food, not, fill, hunger
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4