wú​yán​jiàn​jiāng​dōng​fù​lǎo

too ashamed to face one's people

  • created sense approved 无颜见江东父老/無顏見江東父老 · wú​yán​jiàn​jiāng​dōng​fù​lǎo · too ashamed to face one's people — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    无颜见江东父老 / 無顏見江東父老

    wú​yán​jiàn​jiāng​dōng​fù​lǎo

    too ashamed to face one's people

    To be unable to return home after a failure because of extreme shame or disgrace; originally referring to the general [[项羽|項羽|xiang4 yu3]] choosing suicide over returning to his home region in defeat.

    无 (literal) → 无/無 · wú · to not have 颜 (literal) → 颜/顏 · yán · prestige 见 (literal) → 见/見 · jiàn · to meet 江东父老 (literal) → 江东父老/江東父老 · jiāng​dōng​fù​lǎo · people from one's hometown

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

    created sense