心知肚明
sam1 zi1 tou5 ming4xīn zhī dù míng
English
- to be well aware
- to be made aware of without being informed
- to understand all the things clearly without putting them in words; to know in one's heart; composing a sandwich pun with the former half 雞食放光蟲; literally: the heart knows and the stomach understands
粵語 — Cantonese
- 唔使當口當面講而大家都明;亦同前半句「雞食放光蟲」組成歇後語
Examples
老闆埋單之後就拎部計數機出嚟,大家都心知肚明,呢餐要自己俾錢嘞。
After checking the bill, our boss took out a calculator. We all already knew that we had to pay for the meal ourselves.
Sources: cc-canto, cc-cedict, rime-cantonese, words.hk