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出丑 (chū chǒu) — to make a fool of oneself, to be humiliated; to make someone lose face (by exposing their shame)

Definition

出丑 is an intransitive verb meaning to embarrass oneself or be publicly humiliated, often through a blunder. 同 HSK7 siblings 丢脸/丢人 it describes losing face, but 出丑 often pins the cause to a specific incident or performance gone wrong.

verb
to make a fool of oneselfto be humiliatedto make someone lose face (by exposing their shame)

Examples

  • ，出丑。
    Tā zài biǎo yǎn shí tū rán wàng cí, dāng chǎng chū chǒu.
    He suddenly forgot his lines during the performance and made a fool of himself on the spot.
  • ，出丑？
    Nǐ zhè yàng shuō tā de yǐn sī, shì xiǎng ràng tā chū chǒu ma?
    Are you trying to embarrass her by talking about her privacy like that?
  • ，。
    Tā zài tóng shì miàn qián chū le yí cì dà chǒu, xiàn zài dōu bù gǎn jiàn rén le.
    He made a huge fool of himself in front of his colleagues, and now he dares not show his face.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

出chūbring out
丑chǒushame

“出” means to bring out and “丑” is shame, so exposing shame.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

出 combines 止 (foot) and 凵 (cave) to show a foot stepping out of a cave.

Open 出 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 醜; 丑 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 丑 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words it is 醜; in others (丑) it is 丑.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
鬼鬼guǐghost, demon
Sound part声符shēngfú
酉
酉yǒu醜chǒu
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 醜 uses 鬼, a ghost or demon, to show ugliness and 酉 for sound; that shape is about 醜, not about 丑.

Open 丑 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Emotions & Feelings

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.