Meaning of 赖
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to depend on
- to hang on in a place
- bad
- to renege (on promise)
- to disclaim
- to rat (on debts)
- rascally
- to blame
- surname Lai
- (Tw) (coll.) LINE messaging app
- variant of 賴|赖[lai4]
How to use 赖
In compounds 赖 usually means to rely on, as in 依赖 (yīlài) and 信赖 (xìnlài), but on its own it often means to stay somewhere stubbornly, to deny something, or to blame someone. A common everyday pattern is 赖在 + place: 他赖在床上不起来 (tā lài zài chuáng shang bù qǐlái) He stays in bed and refuses to get up.
Look for 贝 (bèi), the old symbol for money and shells, on the right side of 赖. Picture someone who leans on other people's money and then refuses to pay it back, which covers both senses: to depend on and to renege.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 赖 with 懒 (lǎn, lazy), which adds the heart radical 忄 on the left and has a third tone. Keep 贝 in mind for 赖 and the heart for 懒, since laziness is a state of mind.
赖 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
赖 lài · to depend on · 13 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 赖.
Questions about 赖
What does 赖 mean?
赖 (lài) means "to depend on; to hang on in a place" and is used as a verb and adjective.
How do you write 赖?
赖 is made of 1 character: 赖 (13 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 赖 an HSK word?
Yes. 赖 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 赖 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 赖 is written 賴.
How do you use 赖 to mean blame someone?
Use 赖 + person, often in the negative: 这不赖他 (zhè bú lài tā) means it is not his fault. 赖 can also mean to falsely pin something on someone, as in 别赖我 (bié lài wǒ), don't blame me.
Why does 不赖 mean good if 赖 can mean bad?
In some dialects and colloquial speech 赖 means bad, so 不赖 (bùlài) literally means not bad. It is a casual compliment, like 你的中文真不赖 (nǐ de Zhōngwén zhēn búlài), your Chinese is really not bad.