囤积居奇

囤積居奇

túnjījūqí

idiom #54,437

Meanings

1 to hoard goods and speculate
2 to stockpile scarce items to drive up prices
3 to profiteer through hoarding

Characters

to store; to hoard

to hold; to occupy

rare; scarce goods

Examples

疫情期间有些商人囤积居奇，哄抬物价。

Yìqíng qījiān yǒuxiē shāngrén túnjījūqí, hōngtái wùjià.

During the pandemic some merchants hoarded scarce goods to inflate prices.

政府严厉打击囤积居奇的行为。

Zhèngfǔ yánlì dǎjī túnjījūqí de xíngwéi.

The government is cracking down hard on price-gouging hoarders.

他囤积居奇，结果货物贬值，亏得一塌糊涂。

Tā túnjījūqí, jiéguǒ huòwù biǎnzhí, kuī dé yītāhútú.

He hoarded goods to speculate, but prices dropped and he took a disastrous loss.

Tips

usage

Strongly negative — implies exploiting shortages to gouge prices. Typical subjects: 商人, 不法商贩, 投机商. Common collocation: 囤积居奇，哄抬物价 (hoard and inflate prices).

memory

囤积 = to pile up stock, 居奇 = to sit on something rare (奇 here means "rare goods"). The hoarder 囤 + 积 + 居 + 奇: piles, stores, sits on, the rare stuff.

Stroke Order

囤 tún

积 jī

居 jū

奇 qí