坎坷
kǎn kě
Pinyin
Definition
坎坷
-
- bumpy (of a road)
- rough (of life)
- to be down on one's luck
- to be full of frustrations and dashed hopes
Character Decomposition
Related Words (17)
- 1 bumpy (of a road)
- 2 rough (of life)
- 3 to be down on one's luck
- 4 to be full of frustrations and dashed hopes
- 1 pit
- 2 threshold
- 3 one of the Eight Trigrams 八卦[bā guà], symbolizing water
- 4 ☵
- 1 critical juncture
- 2 key moment
- 1 bottom of one's heart
- 1 Chikan district of Zhanjiang city 湛江市[Zhàn jiāng shì], Guangdong
Idioms (1)
坎坷不平
- 1 potholed and bumpy road (idiom); fig. full of disappointment and dashed hopes
Sample Sentences
嗯,很多偷渡者都有很坎坷的经历,一些人被警察逮住,一些人在多地辗转,也有很多人因偷渡而丧命。而偷渡成功的,一般也要过二三十年才能获得绿卡。不过,他们这么做都是为了生计啊。
Yeah, people who get smuggled usually have quite a bumpy ride, some are arrested by police, some get passed through a string of different places, and lots of them lose their lives. And those who arrive at their destination without a hitch have to wait 20-30 years before they can get a green card. But they do all this for the chance of a better life.
对,大概这也是为什么“暴发户”成为了一个贬义词。其实很多人都是在改革开放后背井离乡,到沿海的开放城市去“淘金”,幸运地致富的。他们的经历中也会有坎坷和辛劳,可是到后来暴发户却成为了不劳而获的代名词。也许是他们富有之后的转变实在太大,所以才不被世人所接受吧。
Yeah. That's probably why ''new money" has become a pejorative word. Actually, a lot of people left their homes after Reform and Opening. They went to coastal cities to seek their fortune, and they got rich because of their luck. Their experiences were bumpy and full of back-breaking work. But later on, ''nouveau riche" became a word for those who reaped what they did not sew. Maybe they're not accepted by the rest of the world because they changed so much after getting rich.