蛇王

Chinese

		snake; serpent	king; Wang (proper name)
simp. and trad. (蛇王)		蛇	王
anagram		王蛇

Etymology

The sense of "slack off" or "lazy" compares a hibernating snake with human.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): se⁴ wong⁴

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: se⁴ wong⁴
    • Yale: sèh wòhng
    • Cantonese Pinyin: se⁴ wong⁴
    • Guangdong Romanization: sé⁴ wong⁴
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sɛː²¹ wɔːŋ²¹/

Noun

蛇王

1. (Cantonese) lazy person
2. (Hong Kong) owner of a shop that sells snake soup and catches snakes in the neighborhood

Usage notes

The names of shops run by snake catchers are usually in the form 蛇王X, where X is one of the characters in the owner's name.

Verb

蛇王

1. (Cantonese) to slack off at work; to goof off during work

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 偷懶 (“to slack off; to lie down on the job”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		偷懶, 躲懶, 偷閒
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	躲懶兒, 偷懶兒, 脫懶兒
	Taiwan	偷懶
	Singapore	偷懶
Lanyin Mandarin	Ürümqi	躲懶
Jianghuai Mandarin	Yangzhou	躲懶, 隑懶
Cantonese	Guangzhou	躲懶, 放蛇, 偷雞
	Hong Kong	偷懶, 蛇王, 吞泡
	Dongguan	偷雞
Gan	Nanchang	偷懶
Hakka	Meixian	偷嫽
	Xingning	偷嫽, 怠懶
	Huizhou (Huicheng Bendihua)	偷嫽
Jin	Taiyuan	偷懶
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	躲懶
Southern Min	Xiamen	想惰
	Zhangzhou	想惰, 想死
	Penang (Hokkien)	食蛇
	Singapore (Hokkien)	食蛇
Southern Pinghua	Nanning (Tingzi)	偷懶

Adjective

蛇王

1. (Cantonese) lazy