📖 Meaning
A metaphor for bad friends who are gluttonous, lazy, and idle. It refers to disreputable companions who lead someone away from proper work and responsibility, often encouraging wasteful or dissolute behavior.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from Ouyang Shan's modern novel '苦斗' (Bitter Struggle), chapter forty-four, where a character worries that the family fortune painstakingly accumulated by father and son will not be enough to support his daily carousing with such worthless companions. By pairing the pig and the dog—animals traditionally associated with greed and baseness—the phrase paints vividly the low character of these associates. It is a relatively modern literary expression that has since entered everyday usage.
💡 Example Usage
他整天和一群猪朋狗友在外鬼混，把家业都败光了。
He spent his days fooling around with a bunch of worthless friends and squandered the whole family fortune.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 猪朋狗友
- Pinyin: zhū péng gǒu yǒu
- Literal Translation: pig, friend, dog, friend
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4