红眼

• Pinyin: hóng yǎn
• Hanzi breakdown: 红 = 纟+ 工; 眼 = 目 (eye radical) + 艮 (phonetic) — the eye

Meaning

To be red-eyed with envy; to become jealous or covetous. Also literally: to have red or bloodshot eyes.

Most commonly used figuratively to mean becoming intensely jealous or envious upon seeing others's success or good fortune. The literal sense (bloodshot eyes from fatigue or irritation) also exists. In aviation, 红眼航班 means a red-eye flight (overnight flight). The figurative envy sense is the dominant usage in modern Chinese.

Examples

1. 看到邻居买了新车，他心里不由得红眼，暗暗下定决心要在年底前也换一辆更好的车。 When he saw his neighbor buy a new car, he couldn’t help feeling jealous and quietly resolved to upgrade to an even better one before the end of the year.
2. 商场里打折的名牌包吸引了大批顾客，场面混乱，不少人因为抢不到而红眼起来。 Discounted designer bags at the mall drew a huge crowd; the scene turned chaotic, and many people got jealous and upset because they couldn’t get one.
3. 他连续加班三天，双眼通红，同事们都劝他回家休息，别再硬撑了。 After working overtime for three straight days, his eyes were bloodshot, and his coworkers urged him to go home and rest instead of pushing himself.

Usage Guide

Context: emotion, envy, colloquial, figurative

Tone: negative

Do Say

• 他的同学一个个都拿到了大公司的高薪录用通知，他坐在宿舍里越想越红眼，暗暗后悔当初没有好好准备面试。(One by one his classmates received high-salary job offers from major companies, and as he sat in the dormitory turning it over in his mind, he grew increasingly green with envy, quietly regretting that he had not prepared properly for his own interviews.)
• 别人的成功不应该让你红眼，而应该激励你找出自身的差距，踏踏实实地努力提升。(Other people's success should not make you turn green with envy — it should motivate you to identify your own gaps and make solid, steady efforts to improve.)

Don't Say

• 红眼 to describe physical red eyes in formal or medical contexts — use 充血 or 结膜充血 in clinical language; 红眼 is colloquial and primarily carries the figurative jealousy sense

Origin & History

红 (red) + 眼 (eye) — eyes turning red either from envy (figurative) or physical irritation (literal); the envy sense derives from the visible reddening of eyes in states of strong emotion

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal