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碰一鼻子灰

Mandarin · pinyin pèng yī bí zi huī

lit. to have one's nose rubbed in the dirt
fig. to meet with a sharp rebuff

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Characters in this entry

碰: pèng · collide, bump into
一: yī · one; a, an; alone
鼻: bí · nose; first; Kangxi radical 209
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
灰: huī · ashes; dust; lime, mortar

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–2–5–1 · peng4 yi1 bi2 zi5 hui1

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be embarrassed as a result of rejection

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

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