民不聊生 mín bù liáo shēng

no way of getting by

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency 55479th word

Definitions

  1. 1. no way of getting by
  2. 2. The people have no way to make a living (idiom, from Record of the Grand Historian 史记shǐ jì)

Characters

Character Meaning
民 mín HSK 4
the people; citizen; nationality
不 bù HSK 1
not; no; (negative prefix)
聊 liáo HSK 3
to chat; slightly; just
生 shēng HSK 1
life; to be born; raw