Meaning:

    “蚁” is short for “蚂蚁,” which means “ants,” and “贪” is short for “贪污,” which means “taking bribes.” This term is used by Chinese to refer to those low-rank officials who have limited power but continue to trade their power for money and take small-sum bribes regularly and in the long term. The image of ants hoarding food tenatiously is borrowed to describe this kind of corruption.

    Example:

    A: 浙江有两名教育官员从印刷厂收贿赂，每张试卷收不到两分钱。

    Zhèjiāng yǒu liǎngmíng jiàoyù guānyuán cóng yìnshuāchǎng shōu huìlù, měizhāng shìjuàn shōu bùdào liǎngfēnqián。

    Two Zhejiang education officials took bribes from a printing factory, charging less than 2 cents for each test paper printed.

    B: 那他们一定没收很多钱。

    Nà tāmen yīdìng méi shōu hěnduō qián。

    They must have taken not a big sum.

    A: 他们在五年时间里收了二十五万元呢。

    Tāmen zài wǔnián shíjiān lǐ shōu le èrshíwǔ wàn yuán ne。

    They took 250,000 yuan in five years.

    B: 有这么多啊！难怪人们叫他们蚁贪。

    Yǒu zhème duō a! Nánguài rénmen jiào tāmen yǐtān。

    Really! No wonder people call this ant-hoarding style of corruption.