Chinese word dictionary

倚老卖老

yǐ lǎo mài lǎo · (idiom) to flaunt one's seniority; to rely on one's age or length of experience to control or belittle others

Practice word

Word information

Simplified倚老卖老

Traditional倚老賣老

Pinyinyǐ lǎo mài lǎo

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

倚yǐ

to rely on, to depend on

老lǎo

old, aged; experienced

卖mài

to sell; to betray; to show off

老lǎo

old, aged; experienced

How to learn 倚老卖老

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

老师lǎoshī

teacher; CL:個|个[ge4],位[wei4]

卖mài

to sell; to betray; to spare no effort; to show off or flaunt

老lǎo

prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity; old (of people); venerable (person); experienced; of long standing; always; all the time; of the past; very; outdated; (of meat etc) tough

老人lǎorén

old man or woman; the elderly; one's aged parents or grandparents

外卖wàimài

(of a restaurant) to provide a takeout or home delivery meal; takeout (business); takeout (meal)

老虎lǎohǔ

tiger; CL:隻|只[zhi1]