# 赌气



## elenana

How to say 赌气 in english?


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## Ghabi

Sometimes translation can be suggested even without context (for example, for highly technical terms), but I don't think any suggestions can be made for this one without context.

In case non-native speakers are curious: when you're mad at somebody, you don't go confront him directly, instead you go do something that you think can drive him crazy, even at the expense of yourself. In this case we say that you "赌气 to do that silly thing". The most household example would be: you go cheat on your partner after finding out he is unfaithful to you.


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## Lamb67

*vin·di·cate* 
_tr.v._ *vin·di·cat·ed*, *vin·di·cat·ing*, *vin·di·cates* *5. *To exact revenge for; avenge. by thefreedictionary.com.
She vindicated herself by cheating her husband after learning her husband's one-night-stand.

On the other hand it is pretty close to 'sulk' :a mood in which one shows anger or resentment by being silent and moody

Literally speaking it is the combination of gamble and breath.

It is a word decribing one's mind: angry, sulky, and resentful; to protest, the worst case could be to vindicate. All are unpleasant and negative feelings from less strong to the strongest.


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## elenana

But i thought vindicate means to clear from an accusation, suspicion or criticism. 赌气 is definitely not meant to do something in order to clear oneself from an accusation, suspicion or criticism. 

There is another word called vindictive but it more suitable to describe the personality type of a person. 

Maybe i can say to do something out of spite or to do something with malice?


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## xiaolijie

> Maybe i can say to do something out of spite or to do something with malice?


Not really out of spite or malice but you can say "do something rash or irational out of anger, out of a sense of injustice"


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## pp0970

*H*ere's an example, my son's watching cartoon *TV*, but it's the dinner time. *I* go to turn off *TV* and bring him to the table, he becomes "unhappy/angry" with me(or maybe this action), and does not eat anything or even back to *TV*, but just sit with silence. *T*his is what i called 赌气。

*H*ope it helps.


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## w84u

“sulk“ is quite close to it.


*sulk* 

v to be silently angry and refuse to be friendly or discuss what is annoying or upsetting you - used to show disapproval 

_Nicola* sulked* all morning. _
_He's *sulking* in a corner somewhere because I wouldn't let him have a second bar of chocolate._
_He went off to *sulk *in his room. _

sulk 2 n [C] a time when someone is sulking

in/into a sulk

_Mike could *go into a sulk* that would last for days._
_Jim's *in one of his sulks* again - just ignore him._
_She's *having a sulk*._

the sulks
_*a fit of the sulks*_


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## Ghabi

w84u said:


> "sulk" is quite close to it.



"Sulk" is only a state of mind, though. When we say someone "赌气", we mean that he does something silly (to refuse to have dinner, for example) in that sulky state of mind.


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## w84u

If "sulk" is only a state of mind, why isn't "赌气" too？ If someone refuses to have dinner when they are in a sulky mood, we might say 他赌气不吃饭. In English, we might also say 'he sulked and refused to have his dinner'. --I didn't see much difference here.


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## kataya

Broadly speaking, the term 'passive-aggressive' can apply to these sorts of situations. Instead of confronting the person about a given problem, one might instead use veiled threats, insubordination or subversion. 

This term describes a defense mechanism and originated from psychology, but is becoming more widely used in spoken english (at least in the US). If I think of a more colloquial expression I'll be sure to post it.


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## xiaolijie

w84u said:
			
		

> I didn't see much difference here.


If you look at the definitions of "sulk" and of "赌气" in (monolingual) dictionaries, you'll see clearly the difference. Someone may sulk because s/he is not happy with the situation, but s/he may not be doing anything rash or irrational. "赌气" is different in this respect.


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## Ghabi

w84u said:


> If someone refuses to have dinner when they are in a sulky mood, we might say 他赌气不吃饭. In English, we might also say 'he sulked and refused to have his dinner'.



I think this one works, because 賭氣 is followed by a particular action. However, in some context we might not have the specific action. E.g. 这个孩子，就是爱赌气

Also, as Lamb says, "sulky" is not the only state of mind assoicated with 赌气:


Lamb67 said:


> It is a word decribing one's mind: angry, sulky, and resentful; to protest, the worst case could be to vindicate. All are unpleasant and negative feelings from less strong to the strongest.



E.g. 他老婆赌气，跟别的男人跑了  In this case we certainly won't say she "sulked and ran away with another man."


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## Lamb67

One native Eng speaker said : The boy sulks and is plotting his revenge.

We seem to have agreed that ' to sulk' has done good job, though ' to rash out of a sense of injustice' and ' to be irrational out of anger' also deserve a lot of credits.

The combination of both of them would be a plausible answer and ' passive-aggressive' is the perfect one.


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## Ghabi

kataya said:


> Broadly speaking, the term 'passive-aggressive' can apply to these sorts of situations. Instead of confronting the person about a given problem, one might instead use veiled threats, insubordination or subversion.
> 
> This term describes a defense mechanism and originated from psychology, but is becoming more widely used in spoken english (at least in the US). If I think of a more colloquial expression I'll be sure to post it.



To 赌气 and to be "passive-aggressive" are not the same thing. I'd say my wife is "passive-aggressive", because she never shows her anger, instead she punishes me in all kind of under-handed ways.(You know what I mean if you've got a wife, folks). I certainly won't say she likes to 赌气. If a woman 赌气, she wants you to know that she _is_ unhappy. A "passive-aggressive" person nevers show his anger.


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## Lamb67

You can feel her anger anyway and I see your point now. I agree with you and luckily I can find  the Chinese version for ' passive-aggressive':' Smiling Face Tiger '= Xiao(4) Mian(4) Hu(2) in Mandarin if you got ' passive-aggressive' correctly.


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## Ghabi

"Passive-aggressive" is a rather new term, I don't think there's a Chinese equivalent for that.

You call someone a 笑面虎 only when you consider him "wicked" and "dangerous". As far as I know, "passive-aggressive" doesn't carry this shade of meaning. In any case, I don't think you'd call your wife a 笑面虎, even though she might be a   雌老虎...but it's a bit off-topic.


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## Wenchu

How about "in a fit of pique"?


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## orangemoon

Ghabi said:


> To 赌气 and to be "passive-aggressive" are not the same thing. I'd say my wife is "passive-aggressive", because she never shows her anger, instead she punishes me in all kind of under-handed ways.(You know what I mean if you've got a wife, folks). I certainly won't say she likes to 赌气. If a woman 赌气, she wants you to know that she _is_ unhappy. A "passive-aggressive" person nevers show his anger.


 
It seems "passive-aggressive" closer to 生悶氣 or a feature of people with low EQ who usually act passively to communicate.


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## Lamb67

"You have given them the embroidered lotus-leaf purse that I gave you ! That's nice! You may be certain that I will never give you a present again! " she said petulantly, turning her back on him.

 Black Jade is telling Bao Yu off. Chapter 14

Pao  Yu reveals his talent in the Park of Delightful Vision .Black Jade is annoyed by the bite of a fly

The Dream Of the Red Chamber Routledge & Megan Paul page 133.

Added one more vocabulary -- petulant here.

The reason why petulant is chosen is because of the context rather than a definition in dictionary.

Thanks.


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