To console yourself with something imaginary
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
Cao Cao's army was marching with no water left and men were dropping. He pointed ahead and announced a great plum grove just over the hill, heavy with sour fruit. Every mouth watered at the thought, and the column made it to the next well.
Source: 《世说新语》A New Account of Tales of the World, 5th century AD
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
望梅止渴 is pronounced wàng méi zhǐ kě and means to console yourself with something imaginary. Literally it says "gaze at plums to quench thirst" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《世说新语》A New Account of Tales of the World, 5th century AD. Cao Cao's army was marching with no water left and men were dropping. He pointed ahead and announced a great plum grove just over the hill, heavy with sour fruit. Every mouth watered at the thought, and the column made it to the next well.
wàng méi zhǐ kě. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
望 (wàng) To look in distance (expect - hope - gaze), 梅 (méi) Plum, 止 (zhǐ) Stop (suspend - put a stop to), 渴 (kě) Thirsty (eagerly). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 望梅止渴 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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