TongTong
Sign in

胡闹 (hú nào) — to act willfully and make a scene; to make trouble

Definition

胡闹 means to act up or throw a tantrum — willful, childish misbehavior. Stronger than 闹事 (which is about causing a public disturbance) and broader than 胡说 (which is only about talking nonsense).

verb
to act willfully and make a sceneto make trouble

Examples

  • 胡闹，。
    Bié zài hú nào le, hǎo hǎo shuō huà.
    Stop making a scene and speak properly.
  • 胡闹。
    Tā zǒng zài jiào shì lǐ hú nào.
    He always acts up in the classroom.
  • 胡闹。
    Nǐ zhè yàng hú nào méi yǒu yì yì.
    There's no point in acting like this.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

胡húrecklessly
闹nàomake trouble

The sense of reckless nonsense in '胡' combines with '闹' to describe making trouble without reason.

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
⺼Written in full as肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
古
古gǔ胡hú
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

胡 combines 古, which points to its sound, with ⺼ (肉), meaning meat or flesh.

Open 胡 →

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
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Conflict & Agreement

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