속수무책

Korean

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 束手無策 (“to have one's hands bound and have no solution; to be at a loss”).

Pronunciation
  • (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [sʰo̞ks͈umut͡ɕʰɛk̚] ~ [sʰo̞ks͈umut͡ɕʰe̞k̚]
  • Phonetic hangul: [속쑤무책/속쑤무첵]
Romanizations
Revised Romanization?soksumuchaek
Revised Romanization (translit.)?sogsumuchaeg
McCune–Reischauer?soksumuch'aek
Yale Romanization?sok.swumu.chayk

Noun

속수무책 • (soksumuchaek) (hanja 束手無策)

  1. (four-character idiom from Classical Chinese) being at a loss what to do; feeling helpless in the face of some difficulty
    여자친구가 흐느끼기 시작하자 남자는 속수무책으로 서 있기만 했다.
    Yeojachin'gu-ga heuneukkigi sijak-haja namja-neun soksumuchaeg-euro seo itgi-man haetda.
    When his girlfriend started to weep, the man only stood there helplessly.
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