咬牙切齿

咬牙切齒
yǎoyá-qièchǐ
idiom #31,517

Meanings

  1. 1 to grit one's teeth in anger or hatred
  2. 2 to gnash one's teeth; seething with rage

Examples

Tā yǎoyáqièchǐ de fāshì yào bàochóu.
Gritting his teeth, he swore revenge.
Xiǎngdào nà jiàn shì, tā jiù yǎoyáqièchǐ.
Just thinking about that incident makes her fume with rage.
Guānzhòng men yǎoyáqièchǐ de kàn zhe fǎnpài déchěng.
The audience seethed as the villain got away with it.

Tips

history
Recorded in Sun Zhongzhang's () Yuan drama 《头巾》: '咬牙切齿' — 'why do you grind your teeth so?' Already a stock dramatic expression of rage by the Yuan dynasty.
mistakes
is read qiè here (fourth tone), not qiē ('to cut'). 齿 = 'to grit teeth together' uses the 'close/press against' sense of .

Stroke Order

yǎo
qiē
齿 chǐ