食之無味,棄之可惜 shí zhī wú wèi , qì zhī kě xī

of little worth yet hard to give up

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency Unknown

Definitions

  1. 1. lit. to be hardly worth eating, but it would still be a pity to discard it (idiom)
  2. 2. fig. some things have little to no value, yet one is still reluctant to part with them

Characters

Character Meaning
to eat; food; animal feed
(possessive particle, literary equivalent of de); it
not; no; not to have
taste; smell; classifier for drugs (in TCM)
to abandon; to throw away; to discard
(possessive particle, literary equivalent of de); it
can; may; able to
to cherish; to begrudge; to pity