DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

龜男

简龟男 · 繁龜男

Mandarin · pinyin guī nán

(slang) man who grovels to a woman; man who accepts a subordinate or exploitative role in hopes of her approval

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

龜: Look up this written character
男: nán · male, man; son; baron; surname
龟: guī · turtle or tortoise; cuckold

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2 · gui1 nan2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

龜男 · find source passages ↗ · 龟男 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

(derogatory, slang) man who passively endures an exploitative relationship

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack