Chinese word

睁

Pronunciation

Pinyinzhēng

Meaning

  • verbopen one's eyes

Example

她一睡醒就睁开眼睛。tā yí shuì xǐng jiù zhēng kāi yǎn jīng

She opens her eyes as soon as she wakes up.

Illustration for 睁 (open one's eyes)

More examples

孩子听到巨响，立刻睁大了眼睛。hái zi tīng dào jù xiǎng lì kè zhēng dà le yǎn jīng

The child opened his eyes wide as soon as he heard the loud noise.

Core concept

Lifting the eyelids to expose the eyes, either briefly or while keeping them open.

Common phrases

  • 睁开眼睛zhēng kāi yǎn jīng

    open one's eyes

  • 睁大眼睛zhēng dà yǎn jīng

    open one's eyes wide

  • 睁眼说瞎话zhēng yǎn shuō xiā huà

    lie shamelessly

Similar words

张开zhāng kāi: Spread open something or a body part so that it becomes wide and fully open.
打开dǎ kāi: Open a closed door, box, or other object.
闭上bì shàng: Shut the eyes by lowering the eyelids.
眨眼zhá yǎn: Briefly close and reopen the eyes in a blink.

Definition in Chinese

眼睛由闭合到张开的动作，也可指眼睛保持张开的持续状态。yǎn jīng yóu bì hé dào zhāng kāi de dòng zuò yě kě zhǐ yǎn jīng bǎo chí zhāng kāi de chí xù zhuàng tài

Word origin

睁 (zhēng, "to open the eyes") is a phono-semantic character: 目 (mù, "eye") points to the meaning, while 争 (zhēng, "strive") supplies the sound.

Usage tips

  • The aspect marker 着 (zhe, "in a continuing state") commonly follows this verb when the eyes stay open, while 大 (dà, "big") after it adds a wide-eyed meaning.

Other meanings

  • open one's eyes wideverb

Opposites

  • 闭上bì shàngclose one's eyesverb

Related words

  • 睁开zhēng kāiopen one's eyesverb

Word lists with this word