bẽ mặt
Definition
- Adjective:
- Feeling ashamed, embarrassed, or humiliated: The state of losing face or dignity, often due to a public failure, mistake, or being proven wrong.
- Feeling awkward or self-conscious: Experiencing discomfort due to a socially awkward or shameful situation.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Anh ấy cảm thấy rất bẽ mặt khi bị phát hiện nói dối. (He felt very ashamed when he was caught lying.)
- Cô ấy đỏ mặt vì bẽ mặt trước đám đông. (She blushed from embarrassment in front of the crowd.)
- Làm sai mà không dám nhận lỗi thật là bẽ mặt. (Making a mistake and not daring to admit it is truly humiliating.)
Advanced Usage
"bẽ mặt lắm": very ashamed, extremely embarrassed.
- Thua một đội yếu hơn khiến họ bẽ mặt lắm. (Losing to a weaker team made them extremely embarrassed.)
"cảm giác bẽ mặt": the feeling of shame/embarrassment.
- Cảm giác bẽ mặt ấy ám ảnh cô suốt nhiều ngày. (That feeling of shame haunted her for many days.)
Variants and Related Words
Bẽ bàng (adj): A synonym with a very similar meaning, often implying a stronger sense of shame and dejection.
- Sự thật phũ phàng khiến anh bẽ bàng. (The harsh truth left him deeply ashamed.)
Xấu hổ (adj): Embarrassed, ashamed. This is a more common and general synonym.
- Cô ấy xấu hổ vì hành động của mình. (She is ashamed of her actions.)
Mất mặt (verb phrase): To lose face. This focuses more on the loss of social dignity rather than the internal feeling.
- Anh ta sợ mất mặt trước đồng nghiệp. (He is afraid of losing face in front of his colleagues.)
Synonyms
- Hổ thẹn: Ashamed, feeling shame.
- Ngượng ngùng: Shy, bashful, embarrassed (often less severe than ).
- Tủi hổ: Humiliated, feeling a mix of shame and resentment.
Related Phrases
Làm bẽ mặt ai đó: To embarrass someone, to make someone lose face.
- Đừng làm bẽ mặt anh ấy trước mặt khách. (Don't embarrass him in front of the guests.)
Bẽ mặt chín chiều: An idiom meaning to be utterly and profoundly ashamed from all sides/directions.
- Sự việc đó khiến ông ấy bẽ mặt chín chiều. (That incident made him utterly and profoundly ashamed.)
Related Idioms
- Chui xuống đất: Literally "to crawl into the ground," meaning to be so embarrassed one wishes to disappear.
- Lúc đó tôi bẽ mặt đến mức chỉ muốn chui xuống đất. (At that moment, I was so embarrassed I just wanted to crawl into the ground.)