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白眼

Mandarin · pinyin bái yǎn

to give sb a dirty look; to cast a supercilious glance
a disdainful look

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Characters in this entry

白: bái · white; pure, unblemished; bright
眼: yǎn · eye; eyelet, hole, opening

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3 · bai2 yan3

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

baak6 ngaan5

Cantonese word readings for 白眼. 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.

noun

white of the eye; sclera
(figurative) disdainful look
(Tianjin Mandarin) one's daughter's child (as opposed to one's son's child ― 紅眼)
(Wenzhounese, ophthalmology, pathology) cataract

verb

to give a supercilious look; to look at someone with contempt

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

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