咸鱼翻身 / 鹹魚翻身

xián​yú​fān​shēn

to experience a reversal of fortune

Literally "a salted fish turns over"; used to describe someone or something previously overlooked or hopeless that suddenly gets a lucky break and rises in status.

咸鱼 (literal) → 咸鱼/鹹魚 · xián​yú · underdog; loser 翻身 (literal) → 翻身 · fān​shēn · to turn one's luck around

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM