摔跟头

摔跟頭

shuāigēntou

phrase #34,975

Meanings

1 to fall down (literally trip and fall)
2 to suffer a setback (figurative)
3 to make a costly mistake

Characters

to fall / to throw down

Examples

路上有冰，小心摔跟头。

Lù shàng yǒu bīng, xiǎoxīn shuāi gēntou.

There's ice on the road, watch out you don't fall.

他在生意上摔了个大跟头。

Tā zài shēngyì shàng shuāi le ge dà gēntou.

He took a big tumble in business.

Tips

usage

Splittable verb-object phrase. 跟头 (gēntou) is the noun 'somersault/fall' on its own. You can insert measure words between 摔 and 跟头: 摔了一个跟头 = 'took a fall'. The figurative 'suffer a setback' sense is extremely common in spoken Chinese — 'don't let yourself fall flat'.

Stroke Order

摔 shuāi

跟 gēn

头 tóu