吃公糧

to be on the government payroll

to eat / to consume / to eat at (a cafeteria etc) / to eradicate / to destroy / to absorb / to suffer / to stammer (Taiwan pr. for this sense is [ji2])

variant of 吃[chi1]

public / collectively owned / common / international (e.g. high seas, metric system, calendar) / make public / fair / just / Duke, highest of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wu3 deng3 jue2 wei4] / honorable (gentlemen) / father-in-law / male (animal)

grain collected by the government as tax

grain / food / provisions / agricultural tax paid in grain