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- to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally
- to fail; to go bankrupt
- to overthrow
- to change (trains or buses)
- to move around
- to resell at a profit
- to invert; to place upside down or frontside back
- to pour out
- to tip out; to dump
- inverted; upside down; reversed
- to go backward
- contrary to what one might expect; but; yet
- speculation by officials
- profiteering by government employees
- bureaucratic turpitude
- down on one's luck; in straitened circumstances; disappointed; frustrated
Trad. 顛倒
- to turn upside down
- to reverse
- back to front
- confused
- deranged
- crazy
Trad. 倒倉
- to transfer grain from a store (e.g. to sun it)
- voice breaking (of male opera singer in puberty)
- (of a singer) to lose one's voice
- (male opera singer's) voice change (at puberty)
Trad. 傾倒
- to topple over; to fall over
- to greatly admire; to prostrate oneself before
- adverse audience reaction: boos and jeers, hissing, catcalls or deliberate applause after a mistake
- Taiwan political movement aimed at forcing the resignation of President Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁|陈水扁[Chen2 Shui3 bian3] in 2006 over corruption allegations
Trad. 倒掛
- lit. to hang upside down
- fig. topsy-turvy and inequitable, e.g. manufacturing and trading costs exceed the sale price (of some goods)
- to borrow more than one can ever repay
Trad. 倒敘
- to start a narrative at the end (or midway), then proceed chronologically from the beginning
- to flash back
- flashback (in a novel, movie etc)
Trad. 倒數
- to count backwards (from 10 down to 0)
- to count down
- from the bottom (lines on a page)
- from the back (rows of seats)
- to flow backwards (of water, because of flood, tide, wind etc)
- reverse flow
- to back up (sewage)
Trad. 倒煙
- to have smoke billowing from a fireplace or stove (due to a blockage in the chimney)
Trad. 倒糞
- to turn over manure
- fig. to offend others by endlessly repeating unpleasant remarks
Trad. 倒貼
- to lose money instead of being paid (i.e. sb should pay me, but is actually taking my money)
Trad. 倒轉
- to make an about-turn; to reverse one's direction, policy, sequence etc; to turn things on their head
Trad. 倒轉
- (of time, or a video clip etc) to run in reverse
- Taiwan pr. [dao4zhuan3]
- (neologism c. 2006) (of circumstances) to stimulate (change, esp. innovation, reform etc)
Trad. 倒座兒
- the north-facing room opposite the master's in a siheyuan 四合院[si4 he2 yuan4]
Trad. 倒插門
- to marry and live with the bride's family (inverting traditional Chinese expectations)
Trad. 倒栽蔥
- to fall headlong
- (fig.) to suffer an ignominious failure
Trad. 一邊倒
- to have the advantage overwhelmingly on one side
- to support unconditionally
- to be entirely on one side
- one-sided
- lopsided
- partisan
- overwhelmingly on one side
Trad. 倒過兒
- the wrong way round (back to front, inside out etc)
Trad. 開倒車
- to drive in reverse
- fig. to take a backward step
- retrogressive
- trying to turn the clock back
Trad. 輕重倒置
- to invert the importance of things (i.e. stress the unimportant and neglect the important)
- lacking a sense of perspective
- to put the cart before the horse
Trad. 捧腹絕倒
- to laugh until it hurts; to laugh heartily
Trad. 神魂顛倒
- lit. spirit and soul upside down (idiom); infatuated and head over heels in love
- fascinated
- captivated
Trad. 投機倒把
- to engage in speculation and profiteering
- lit. to topple the mountains and overturn the seas (idiom); earth-shattering
- fig. gigantic
- of spectacular significance
- lit. overturning seas and rivers (idiom)
- fig. overwhelming
- earth-shattering
- in a spectacular mess
Trad. 顛來倒去
- to harp on
- over and over
- merely ring changes on a few terms
Trad. 翻箱倒櫃
- to overturn trunks and boxes
- to make a thorough search (idiom)
Trad. 翻箱倒篋
- to overturn trunks and boxes
- to make a thorough search (idiom)
Trad. 顛倒是非
- (idiom) to distort right and wrong; to deliberately mislead
Trad. 隨風倒柳
- lit. a willow that bends with the wind
- one with no fixed principles (idiom)
Trad. 顛倒黑白
- lit. to invert black and white (idiom); to distort the truth deliberately
- to misrepresent the facts
- to invert right and wrong
Trad. 隨風倒舵
- to trim one's sails with the wind
- to adopt different attitude depending on the circumstances (idiom)
- lit. to move mountains and drain seas
- to transform nature
Trad. 倒反天綱
- to violate the natural order; to defy social norms
- variant of 倒反天綱|倒反天纲[dao4 fan3 tian1 gang1]
Trad. 倒吊蠟燭
- Wrightia tinctoria (flowering plant in Apocynaceae family, common names dyer's oleander or pala indigo)
Trad. 解民倒懸
- lit. to rescue the people from hanging upside down (idiom, from Mencius); to save the people from dire straits
Trad. 倒懸之危
- lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
- dire straits
Trad. 倒懸之急
- lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
- dire straits
Trad. 倒懸之苦
- lit. the pain of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation
- dire straits
- lit. to strike with a muckrake (idiom), cf Pigsy 豬八戒|猪八戒 in Journey to the West 西遊記|西游记; fig. to counterattack
- to make bogus accusations (against one's victim)
- lit. to present the handle of a sword to another (idiom)
- fig. to relinquish power to another; to place oneself at another's mercy
Trad. 倒果為因
- to reverse cause and effect
- to put the horse before the cart
Trad. 傾箱倒篋
- (idiom) to exhaust all one has
- to leave no stone unturned
- to try one's best
Trad. 窮困潦倒
- (idiom) to live in poverty and despair; down and out; destitute and without hope
Trad. 窮愁潦倒
- impoverished and dejected; wretched and penniless
Trad. 東倒西歪
- to lean unsteadily from side to side (idiom)
- to sway
- (of buildings etc) to lean at a crazy angle
- to know by heart (so well that you can recite it backwards)
Trad. 倒背手兒
- erhua variant of 倒背手[dao4 bei4 shou3]
- to go against the tide (idiom); to do things all wrong
- to try to turn back history
- a perverse way of doing things
Trad. 倒買倒賣
- to buy and sell at a profit
- to speculate
- lit. to invert root and branch (idiom); fig. confusing cause and effect
- to stress the incidental over the fundamental
- to put the cart before the horse
Trad. 倒霉蛋兒
- erhua variant of 倒霉蛋[dao3 mei2 dan4]
- to go against the tide (idiom); to do things all wrong
- to try to turn back history
- a perverse way of doing things
- like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube (metaphor for blurting everything out at once)
Trad. 兵敗如山倒
- troops in defeat like a landslide (idiom); a beaten army in total collapse
Trad. 牆倒眾人推
- lit. when a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a shove (idiom)
- fig. everybody hits a man who is down
Trad. 樹倒猢猻散
- When the tree topples the monkeys scatter. (idiom); fig. an opportunist abandons an unfavorable cause
- Rats leave a sinking ship.
Trad. 倒抽一口氣
- to gasp (in surprise, dismay, fright etc)
Trad. 倒吸一口涼氣
- to gasp (with amazement or shock etc)
- to feel a chill run down one's spine
- to have one's hairs stand on end