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大吵大闹 (dà chǎo dà nào) — to make a noisy scene; to argue loudly and create a disturbance

Definition

An emphatic verb phrase meaning to create a loud, disruptive scene, louder and more unruly than a simple 吵 or 闹 — stresses both noise and the disturbance it causes.

verb
to make a noisy sceneto argue loudly and create a disturbance

Examples

  • 大吵大闹，。
    Tā men liǎ zài jiē shàng dà chǎo dà nào, yǐn lái le hěn duō rén wéi guān.
    The two of them were making a scene on the street, attracting a lot of onlookers.
  • ，大吵大闹。
    Yǒu yì jiàn kě yǐ hǎo hǎo shuō, bú bì dà chǎo dà nào.
    If you have an opinion, you can say it properly; there's no need to make a fuss.
  • 大吵大闹，。
    Hái zi yīn wèi bù gāo xìng ér dà chǎo dà nào, dàn guò le yí huì r jiù hǎo le.
    The child was making a fuss because he was unhappy, but after a while he was fine.

Origin

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
少
少shǎo吵chǎo
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

吵 is built from 口, a mouth, plus 少, which supplies the sound. The mouth part matches meanings about noise and quarreling.

Open 吵 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 鬧; 闹 is its simplified writing.

  • 鬥鬥dòuto fight
  • 市市shìmarket; town

The traditional form 鬧 combines 鬥 (to fight) and 市 (market; town) to mean noisy.

Open 闹 →
Appears in
Conflict & AgreementIdioms & Set Phrases

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