Word.ws English Dictionary

lai see

lai see noun: lucky money, usually coming in red envelopes for Chinese New Year.

Noun

lai see (countable and uncountable, plural lai sees)

  1. (Hong-Kong) Lucky money, usually coming in red envelopes for Chinese New Year.
    • Even though we're still in the middle of Chinese New Year holiday week, it doesn't feel like Chinese New Year this year. People aren't handing out lai sees on the street. Lai sees are red packets filled with money, and every year around this time, I always get a bunch from strangers on the street.2022, Kelly Yang, New From Here, page 5

Forms of lai see

plurallai sees

Origin of lai see

From Cantonese 利市 (lai6 si6).

Questions about lai see

What does lai see mean?
Lai see means lucky money, usually coming in red envelopes for Chinese New Year.
What part of speech is lai see?
Lai see is a noun.
What is the plural of lai see?
The plural of lai see is lai sees.

Words near lai see in the dictionary

  1. Lai Chi Vun
  2. Lai Châu
  3. Lai Haraoba
  4. Lai Harauba
  5. lai lai
  6. lai see
  7. lai sees
  8. Lai-feng
  9. Laibach
  10. Laibin
  11. Laible

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lai see (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “lai see.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lai_see. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.