失身

shīshēn

verb #30,432

Meanings

1 (of a woman) to lose one's virginity
2 to lose one's chastity
3 (literary) to compromise one's moral integrity
4 (literary) to lose one's life

Characters

Examples

古代小说常出现女子失身的情节。

Gǔdài xiǎoshuō cháng chūxiàn nǚzǐ shīshēn de qíngjié.

Plots involving a woman losing her chastity often appear in classical novels.

她担心一时冲动会失身。

Tā dānxīn yī shí chōngdòng huì shīshēn.

She worried that a moment of impulse would cost her her chastity.

Tips

culture

Carries the heavy moral baggage of traditional patriarchal ideas about female chastity (贞操 zhēncāo). Common in classical literature, period drama, and conservative discourse. Modern progressive Chinese speakers tend to avoid it as ideologically loaded.

register

Formal/literary. The classical readings ("to lose one's life" or "to lose moral integrity") survive only in older texts. In contemporary use it almost always refers to female sexual chastity.

Stroke Order

失 shī

身 shēn