弃之可惜
qì zhī kě xī
too good to throw away (though of little use)
Character by character
弃qì
discard
discard
之zhī
it
it
可kě
worthy of
worthy of
惜xī
regret
regret
Example
这件大衣穿着嫌旧，弃之可惜，就一直留着没扔。
The coat looks too shabby to wear but is too good to throw away, so it has stayed in the wardrobe all these years.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
Half of 食之无味，弃之可惜 (tasteless to eat, a pity to throw away), the popular form of 杨修’s gloss on 曹操’s one-word order 鸡肋 (chicken rib), recorded in the notes to 《三国志》 as 弃之如可惜，食之无所得; 鸡肋 now means anything of little use that one cannot quite give up.
Learn this in Lesson 130 · HSK 7–9: 修还是换 (Repair or replace?)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. This lesson is free.
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