不瞅不睬

bùchǒu-bùcǎi
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 to ignore completely
  2. 2 to give the cold shoulder
  3. 3 to neither look nor respond

Examples

HSK 4
Tā duì wǒ bùchǒu-bùcǎi, kànlái shì zhēn shēngqì le.
She's ignoring me completely - she must really be angry.
HSK 5
Línjū jiànmiàn jiù bùchǒu-bùcǎi, guānxi lěng de hěn.
The neighbors don't even acknowledge each other - relations are icy.

Tips

history
Earliest in the Ming play 《金印记·周氏回家》: 女婿功名不遂回来一家不偢不倸 - 'when the son-in-law returned without official success, the whole household ignored him.' Picked up by 《儒林外史》 in the Qing and standardized in modern usage.
memory
Two parallel negations: 不瞅 ('don't look') + 不睬 ('don't respond'). The doubled makes it more emphatic than just ignoring once.

Stroke Order

chǒu
cǎi