nāo
adjective #37,681

Meanings

  1. 1 (dialect) bad; no good
  2. 2 cowardly; spineless

Examples

Zhè xiǎozi zhēn nāo, guānjiàn shíhòu diào liànzi.
This kid is really spineless — he chokes at the critical moment.
Bié nāozhǒng, shàng qù gēn tā shuō!
Don't be a coward — go up and tell him!

Tips

memory
Look at the character: (not) stacked on top of (good) — literally "not good." One of the few Chinese characters whose meaning you can read straight off its components. Mostly heard in northern dialects (esp. Shandong/Henan).
register
Colloquial/dialectal, mildly insulting. The compound 孬种 (nāozhǒng, "coward") is the most common form you'll hear, especially in films and northern speech.

Stroke Order

nāo