顾不得

• Pinyin: gù bu dé
• Hanzi breakdown: 顾 = 雇 variant + 页 (head) — to look back, to attend to, to consider; 不得 = cannot, not permitted or able to

Meaning

To be unable to attend to something due to pressing circumstances; to have no time or energy for something because other demands are overwhelming. Implies that one would normally care but simply cannot in the given situation.

Conveys an urgent or pressured state where normal considerations must be set aside. Slightly stronger than 顾不上: both mean 'can't get to it,' but 顾不得 more strongly implies that attending to it is simply impossible given the circumstances — not merely a matter of being too busy. Common in urgent, crisis, or high-pressure situations.

Examples

1. 救援队员在废墟中连续工作了三十个小时，早已顾不得休息和饮食。 The rescue workers had been working nonstop in the rubble for thirty hours and had long since been unable to rest or eat.
2. 项目临近截止日期，她顾不得个人事务，全身心投入到收尾工作中。 With the deadline approaching, she couldn’t spare any attention for personal matters and devoted herself fully to the final wrap-up work.
3. 情况紧急，他顾不得与同事打招呼便直奔会议室。 It was an emergency—he didn’t even have time to greet his coworkers before rushing straight to the conference room.

Usage Guide

Context: urgency, crisis, work pressure, everyday situations

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 洪水来袭，村民们顾不得收拾家当，争先恐后地撤离到安全地带。(As the floodwaters rushed in, villagers had no time to gather their belongings and scrambled to evacuate to safety.)
• 医院急诊室里人满为患，医护人员根本顾不得喝水，一直忙碌到深夜。(The hospital emergency room was packed, and the medical staff had no chance to even drink water, staying busy until late at night.)

Don't Say

• 将'顾不得'用于有意识的选择性忽视 — 顾不得 implies constraint and incapacity, not deliberate choice; for intentional disregard use 不顾 or 置之不理

Origin & History

顾 (to attend to; to look after; to consider) + 不得 (cannot; not able to). Together: cannot afford to attend to; have no capacity to take care of something.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal