硬著頭皮

简 硬着头皮 · 繁 硬著頭皮
Mandarin · pinyin yìng zhe tóu pí

Meanings

  1. to brace oneself to do sth
  2. to put a bold face on it
  3. to summon up courage
  4. to force oneself to
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Characters in this entry

硬
yìng · hard, firm, strong; obstinate
著
zhù · zhe · manifest; (Cant.) to wear
頭
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
皮
pí · skin, hide, fur, feather; outer
着
zhe · make move, take action
头
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–5–2–2 · ying4 zhe5 tou2 pi2

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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.

硬著頭皮 · find source passages ↗ · 硬着头皮 · find source passages ↗

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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.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) to brace oneself to do something difficult or against one's will

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

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

硬著頭皮 · ying4 zhe5 tou2 pi2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 79,793
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record硬著頭皮 硬着头皮 [ying4 zhe5 tou2 pi2] /to brace oneself to do sth/to put a bold face on it/to summon up courage/to force oneself to/