欺人太甚 (qī rén tài shèn) — to go too far; to bully or take advantage of so… | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A four-character idiom meaning 'to bully or push someone too far.' Used to condemn someone for crossing the line in how they treat others.

idiom

to go too farto bully or take advantage of someone excessively

Examples

欺人太甚！
Tā zhè yàng zuò zhēn shì qī rén tài shèn!
His doing this is really going too far!
，欺人太甚。
Nǐ zǒng shì zhàn wǒ pián yi, bié qī rén tài shèn.
You're always taking advantage of me—don't go too far.
，欺人太甚。
Tā men qī fu xīn lái de tóng shì, shí zài qī rén tài shèn.
They bully the new colleague—that's really going too far.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

欺人bully people

欺qībully人rénpeople

动宾Verb + object

太甚too excessive

太tàitoo甚shènexcessive

偏正Modifier + head

「欺人」bullying people and「太甚」too excessive combine to mean going too far.

Characters in this word

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

其欠欺

Meaning part形符xíngfú

欠欠qiànbreath

Sound part声符shēngfú

其

其qí欺qī

Same sound today

欺 is made of 其, which gives its sound, and 欠, which means breath.

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

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

太 is a modified form of 大, with an extra dot added to show 'too big'.

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

甘甘gān
匕匕bǐ

甚 combines 甘 and 匕. The evidence gives no meaning for either part.

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