摸鱼 mō yú
Slacking off while you look busy.
The short answer
CasualNow commonChecked November 2026
Moyu means slacking off at work or in class: you look busy, but you chat, scroll or shop instead. It is a light, joking word.
In a chat
- 琦琦 Qiqi
你在干嘛？
What are you doing?
- 里昂 Leon
在公司摸鱼，看视频呢。
Slacking off at the office, watching videos.
- 琦琦 Qiqi
小心老板看见！
Careful your boss doesn't see!
- 里昂 Leon
没事，他也在摸鱼。
It's fine. He's slacking off too.
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How to reply
摸鱼快乐！
Happy slacking!
带我一起摸鱼。
Let me slack off with you.
When not to use it
What it means
To 摸鱼 is to spend work time on something else while you seem to work: you chat with friends, read the news, shop online or take a long coffee break. People use it as a joke about themselves, in the way English speakers say they are “slacking off”.
A person who does it often is a 摸鱼达人, an expert slacker.
How people use it
It is a verb: 上班摸鱼 (to slack off at work), 摸鱼时间 (slacking time). Students use it too, for a class or a study session where they do nothing.
It is often said with a little pride. 今天摸了一天鱼 means “I slacked off all day today”. The verb and the object can split, as in 摸了一天鱼.
Where it comes from
The word comes from the idiom 浑水摸鱼, “to feel for fish in muddy water”: to take a gain while nobody can see clearly. In the slang, the gain is free time at work, and the muddy water is a busy office where nobody notices.
A 2020 article in Jiemian describes 摸鱼 as the common word for workers who do not give their full attention to work, and notes that staff use it to mock themselves.
In use
2 examples他上班的时候经常摸鱼。
He often slacks off at work.
今天没什么事，下午可以摸鱼了。
There's not much to do today, so I can slack off this afternoon.
The characters
Explore individuallyIndividual character meanings do not always explain the meaning of the whole word.
Sources
This guide is original Dengdeng editorial content, offered under CC BY-SA 4.0. The linked dictionary entries adapt CC-CEDICT under the same license.