Dictionary › 哭笑不得

哭笑不得

kū xiào bù dé

HSK 3.0 level 7-9 4-character word

哭笑不得 (kū xiào bù dé) means "lit. not to know whether to laugh or cry (idiom); both funny and extremely embarrassing; between laughter and tears". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was not on the old six-level HSK list.

What 哭笑不得 means

1. lit. not to know whether to laugh or cry (idiom)
2. both funny and extremely embarrassing
3. between laughter and tears

The characters in 哭笑不得

• 哭kūto cry; to weep
• 笑xiàoto laugh; to smile; to laugh at
• 不bùno; not so; (bound form) not; un-
• 得destructural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to…

Example sentences

• 我哭笑不得。
  Wǒ kū xiào bùdé.
  I don't know whether to cry or to laugh.
• 我真是哭笑不得。
  Wǒ zhēnshi kūxiàobùdé.
  I do not know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult.
• 我真是哭笑不得了。
  Wǒ zhēnshi kūxiàobùdé le.
  I don't know whether to cry or to laugh.

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read kū xiào bù dé correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.