苦水

kǔshuǐ

noun #32,081

Meanings

1 bitter water (mineral water with sulfates)
2 bitter complaints; bottled-up suffering
3 bile; gastric fluid (rising from the stomach)

Characters

bitter; suffering

Examples

HSK 4

她终于向我倒出了一肚子的苦水。

Tā zhōngyú xiàng wǒ dào chū le yí dùzi de kǔshuǐ.

She finally poured out all her bottled-up grievances to me.

HSK 6

西北山区有些井水是苦水，不能直接喝。

Xīběi shānqū yǒuxiē jǐngshuǐ shì kǔshuǐ, bùnéng zhíjiē hē.

Some well water in the northwestern mountains is bitter water and can't be drunk directly.

HSK 7-9

胃不舒服的时候，嘴里会泛上苦水。

Wèi bù shūfu de shíhou, zuǐ lǐ huì fàn shàng kǔshuǐ.

When your stomach is unsettled, bile rises up into your mouth.

Tips

usage

Three senses, but the figurative one is by far the most common in spoken Chinese. The fixed phrase 倒苦水 ('pour out bitter water') = 'vent / share one's grievances'. 一肚子苦水 = 'a belly full of grievances'. The literal water sense survives in old place names like 苦水井 ('bitter-water well').

memory

苦 (bitter) + 水 (water): physical bitter water, or - since Chinese metaphorically locates emotion in the gut - bottled-up bitterness that finally has to be poured out (倒苦水).

Stroke Order

苦 kǔ

水 shuǐ