HSK 6 · Food

狼吞虎咽 lángtūnhǔyàn “to wolf down (food)” in Chinese

Traditional 狼吞虎嚥

What 狼吞虎咽 means

  1. to wolf down (food)
  2. to gobble
  3. to wolf down one’s food (idiom)
  4. to devour ravenously
  5. to gorge oneself

How to say 狼吞虎咽

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale狼láng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale吞tūn1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale虎hǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale咽yàn4th tone, falling

狼吞虎咽 in a sentence

  1. 他狼吞虎咽地吃了食物。

    Tā lángtūnhǔyàn de chī le shíwù.

    He wolfed down the food.

    Sentence #13946741 from Tatoeba

  2. 别狼吞虎咽的。你最好细嚼慢咽地吃。

    Bié lángtūnhǔyàn de. Nǐ zuìhǎo xìjiáomànyàn de chī.

    Don’t wolf your food down. You’d better eat it slowly.

    Sentence #2581495 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 狼吞虎咽 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 狼 (láng) with each of its parts in a different colour
狼lángwolf
  • 犭dog form of 犬 · quǎnMeaning part
  • 良good · liángSound part

犭 hints at the meaning (dog); 良 (liáng) hints at the sound. Compare it with láng.

The character 吞 (tūn) with each of its parts in a different colour
吞tūnto swallow
  • 天sky · tiānSound part
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 天 (tiān) hints at the sound. Compare it with tūn.

The character 虎 (hǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
虎hǔtiger
  • 虍tiger · hū
  • 几table · jī
The character 咽 (yàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
咽yànto swallow
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 因cause · yīnSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 因 (yīn) hints at the sound. Compare it with yàn.

How to write 狼吞虎咽

狼 10 strokes · 吞 7 strokes · 虎 8 strokes · 咽 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

狼吞虎咽 (lángtūnhǔyàn) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 狼吞虎咽 (lángtūnhǔyàn). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 狼吞虎咽

Words with 狼

狼狈lángbèi · in an awkward situation

Words with 吞

吞吞吐吐tūntūntǔtǔ · to hum and haw

Words with 虎

马虎mǎhu · careless老虎lǎohǔ · tiger

More words: Food & Dining

搅拌jiǎobàn · to stir佳肴jiāyáo · fine dish咀嚼jǔjué · to chew可口kěkǒu · tasty烹饪pēngrèn · cooking品尝pǐncháng · to taste清真qīngzhēn · halal涮火锅shuànhuǒguō · to eat hotpot

FAQs

狼吞虎咽 (lángtūnhǔyàn) means “to wolf down (food)” or “to gobble”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it lángtūnhǔyàn: láng with a 2nd tone, then tūn with a 1st tone, then hǔ with a 3rd tone, then yàn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 狼吞虎咽 is written 狼吞虎嚥. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type langtunhuyan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 狼吞虎咽 from the suggestions. Typing langtunhuyan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
狼吞虎咽 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.