正颜厉色 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• solemn in countenance ; strict and unsmiling

Character by character

• 正zhèngstraight, right, proper, correct, just, true
• 颜yánface, facial appearance
• 厉lìwhetstone; to grind, to sharpen, to whet
• 色sècolor, tint, hue, shade; beauty, form; sex

Idioms sharing a character

• 一本正经 yī běn zhèng jīng
• 以正视听 yǐ zhèng shì tīng
• 偏邪不正 piān xié bù zhèng
• 字正腔圆 zì zhèng qiāng yuán
• 就地正法 jiù dì zhèng fǎ
• 扶正压邪 fú zhèng yā xié
• 舍正从邪 shě zhèng cóng xié
• 改邪归正 gǎi xié guī zhèng
• 正中要害 zhèng zhòng yào hài
• 正襟危坐 zhèng jīn wēi zuò

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.