丢人 (diū rén) — to lose face; to be embarrassing | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

丢人 means to lose face or be embarrassing in front of others. Synonymous with 丢脸; stronger/colloquial than 难堪 (awkward), and implies a public gaffe like 出丑.

verb

to lose faceto be embarrassing

Examples

，丢人。
Tā kǎo shì zuò bì, zhēn diū rén.
He cheated on the exam — how disgraceful!
，丢人。
Nǐ bié zài dà jiā miàn qián shuō zhè zhǒng huà, tài diū rén le.
Don't say this kind of thing in front of everyone — it's too embarrassing.
，丢人？
Shàng cì zài huì yì shàng shuō cuò huà, diū rén le ma?
Did you feel embarrassed when you said the wrong thing at the meeting last time?

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

丢 means lose and 人 means person, giving the sense of losing face.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 丟; 丢 is its simplified writing.

一一yīone (once)
去去qùto go; to remove

The traditional form 丟 is made of 一 (one) and 去 (to go; to remove); the simplified 丢 is a later shorthand, so its shapes are not the original parts.

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.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Emotions & Feelings 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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