DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
死要面子活受罪
Mandarin · pinyin sǐ yào miàn zi huó shòu zuì
Meanings
- to go through hell for the sake of keeping up appearances (idiom)
Characters in this entry
- 死
- sǐ · die; dead; death
- 要
- yào · necessary, essential; necessity
- 面
- miàn · face; surface; plane; side, dimension; Kangxi radical 176
- 子
- zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
- 活
- huó · live, exist, survive; lively
- 受
- shòu · receive, accept, get; bear, stand
- 罪
- zuì · crime, sin, vice; evil; hardship
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
3–4–4–5–2–4–4 · si3 yao4 mian4 zi5 huo2 shou4 zui4
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.