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上门 (shàng mén) — to visit, to drop in (at someone's home); to lock a door; (of a shop) to close; to go and live with one's wife's family (as a live-in son-in-law)

Definition

上门 means visiting someone's home, usually with a purpose like delivering or fixing something, more purposeful than a casual 串门 drop-by. It also covers locking a door or a shop closing, and (as 倒插门) a man moving in with his wife's family.

verb
to visitto drop in (at someone's home)to lock a door(of a shop) to closeto go and live with one's wife's family (as a live-in son-in-law)

Examples

  • 上门。
    Wǒ míng tiān qù shàng mén bài fǎng tā.
    I'll go visit him tomorrow.
  • 上门。
    Wǎn shàng shuì jiào qián bié wàng le shàng mén.
    Don't forget to lock the door before going to bed.
  • ，。
    Tā shàng le yí cì mén, dàn méi jiàn dào rén.
    He visited once but didn't see anyone.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

上shànggo to
门méndoor

上 is go to and 门 is door, giving the sense of visiting someone's door.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

上 is drawn as a short horizontal line placed above a longer arc, marking a position above that arc.

Open 上 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 門; 门 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 門 pictures a gate as two door shapes side by side; the simplified 门 is a later shorthand.

Open 门 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4Home & Housing5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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