男兒有淚不輕彈
简 男儿有泪不轻弹 · 繁 男兒有淚不輕彈Meanings
- real men do not easily cry (idiom)
Characters in this entry
- 男
- nán · male, man; son; baron; surname
- 兒
- ér · son, child, oneself; final part
- 有
- yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
- 淚
- Look up this written character
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 輕
- qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle
- 彈
- Look up this written character
- 儿
- ér · son, child; Kangxi radical 10
- 泪
- lèi · tears; weep, cry
- 轻
- qīng · light; easy, simple; gentle
- 弹
- dàn · pellet, bullet, shot, shell
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
2–2–3–4–4–1–2 · nan2 er2 you3 lei4 bu4 qing1 tan2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
男兒有淚不輕彈 · find source passages ↗ · 男儿有泪不轻弹 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
naam4 ji4 jau5 leoi6 bat1 hing1 taan4
Cantonese word readings for 男兒有淚不輕彈. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- A real man does not cry at the drop of a hat just because life is not going his way.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack