照面 (zhào miàn) — to meet face-to-face (often briefly or accidentally); to put in an appearance, to show up

Definition

照面 (zhàomiàn) almost always appears inside 打照面 — a brief, often accidental face-to-face encounter. Example 2 uses it loosely to mean 'show one's face'.

verb
to meet face-to-face (often briefly or accidentally)to put in an appearanceto show up

Examples

  • 照面。
    Wǒ men zuó tiān zài jiē shàng dǎ le ge zhào miàn.
    We bumped into each other on the street yesterday.
  • 照面。
    Tā kāi huì cóng lái bú zhào miàn.
    He never shows up at meetings.
  • 。
    Wǒ gēn tā zhī zhào guò yí cì miàn.
    I've only met her once.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

照zhàoface
面miànface

照 means to face or look toward and 面 means face; together they describe meeting face to face.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
灬Written in full as火huǒfire
Sound part声符shēngfú
昭
昭zhāo照zhào
Same sound today

照 uses 灬, a bottom form of 火 (fire), plus 昭 for the sound.

Open 照 →

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

面 originally drew a man’s face, with one eye exaggerated; the horizontal stroke was added later.

Open 面 →

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