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臭美

Mandarin · pinyin chòu měi

greatly pleased with oneself; vain; conceited (used as an insult or teasingly)

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Characters in this entry

臭: chòu · smell, stink, emit foul odor
美: měi · beautiful, pretty; pleasing

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3 · chou4 mei3

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cau3 mei5

Cantonese word readings for 臭美. 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.

verb

(colloquial, derogatory) to show off (one's good looks, status, abilities, etc.) shamelessly; to be vain or smug

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

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