灰头土脸 — Chinese idiom
灰头土脸
huī tóu tǔ liǎn
Traditional: 灰頭土臉
Meaning
- head and face filthy with grime
- covered in dirt
- dejected and depressed
Character by character
- 灰huīashes; dust; lime, mortar
- 头tóuhead; chief, boss; first, top
- 土tǔsoil, earth; items made of earth
- 脸liǎnface, cheek; reputation
Idioms sharing a character
- 吹灰之力 chuī huī zhī lì
- 死灰复燃 sǐ huī fù rán
- 灰不溜丢 huī bu liū diū
- 灰飞烟灭 huī fēi yān miè
- 万念俱灰 wàn niàn jù huī
- 面如灰土 miàn rú huī tǔ
- 三天两头 sān tiān liǎng tóu
- 三头六臂 sān tóu liù bì
- 事到临头 shì dào lín tóu
- 傻头傻脑 shǎ tóu shǎ nǎo
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.