巧婦難為無米之炊 qiǎo fù nán wéi wú mǐ zhī chuī

The cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (idiom); You won't get anywhere without equipment.

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency Unknown

Definitions

  1. 1. The cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (idiom); You won't get anywhere without equipment.

Characters

Character Meaning
巧 qiǎo HSK 4
coincidentally; as it happens; skillful
婦 fù
woman; old variant of 婦fù
難 nán
difficult; difficult (to...); difficulty
為 wéi
for; because of; to
無 wú
not; no; not to have
米 mǐ HSK 1
rice; meter (classifier); surname Mi
之 zhī HSK 4
(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的de); it
炊 chuī HSK 6
to cook food