大跌眼鏡

大跌眼鏡

Chinese

		big; great; huge big; great; huge; large; major; wide; deep; oldest; eldest; doctor	to have one's jaws drop; to be surprised or astonished; to be dumbfounded
trad. (大跌眼鏡)		大	跌眼鏡
simp. (大跌眼镜)		大	跌眼镜

Etymology

Literally “to suddenly drop one's eyeglasses”; said to be in reference to earlier, loosely-fitted glasses which fell off easily.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): dàdiēyǎnjìng, dàdiéyǎnjìng

  (Zhuyin): ㄉㄚˋ ㄉㄧㄝ ㄧㄢˇ ㄐㄧㄥˋ, ㄉㄚˋ ㄉㄧㄝˊ ㄧㄢˇ ㄐㄧㄥˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): daai⁶ dit³ ngaan⁵ geng^3-2

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Mainland)⁺
    • Pinyin: dàdiēyǎnjìng
    • Zhuyin: ㄉㄚˋ ㄉㄧㄝ ㄧㄢˇ ㄐㄧㄥˋ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: dahdieyeanjinq
    • IPA ^(key): /tä⁵¹ ti̯ɛ⁵⁵ i̯ɛn²¹⁴⁻²¹¹ t͡ɕiŋ⁵¹/
      
  • (Standard Chinese, Taiwan)⁺
    • Pinyin: dàdiéyǎnjìng
    • Zhuyin: ㄉㄚˋ ㄉㄧㄝˊ ㄧㄢˇ ㄐㄧㄥˋ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: dahdyeyeanjinq
    • IPA ^(key): /tä⁵¹ ti̯ɛ³⁵ i̯ɛn²¹⁴⁻²¹¹ t͡ɕiŋ⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: daai⁶ dit³ ngaan⁵ geng^3-2
    • Yale: daaih dit ngáahn géng
    • Cantonese Pinyin: daai⁶ dit⁸ ngaan⁵ geng^3-2
    • Guangdong Romanization: dai⁶ did³ ngan⁵ géng²
    • IPA ^(key): /täːi̯²² tiːt̚³ ŋäːn¹³ kɛːŋ³³⁻³⁵/

Idiom

大跌眼鏡

1. (figuratively) to have one's jaws drop (often in a bad way); to be greatly surprised or astonished; to be dumbfounded