眉开眼笑
méi kāi yǎn xiào · HSK 7
eyes laughing
😄 眉 brow + 开 open + 眼 eye + 笑 laugh = brows lift, eyes laugh, pure delight
A four-character idiom that stacks two body parts with two happy actions: the brows (眉) open up (开) while the eyes (眼) laugh (笑). All four together describe a face fully given over to joy: beaming, all smiles.
开 — two hands 廾 + door 门 (open gate)
Originally written 開, showing two hands (廾) lifting the bar (一) off a gate (門) to open it. The simplified form 开 keeps the two-hands element and drops the gate. Core meaning 'to open' extended to 'start, operate, bloom'.
眼 — eye radical 目 + 艮 (phonetic)
眼 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 目 means 'eye' and gives the meaning, while 艮 on the right supplies the sound. Originally referring to the eyeball, it broadened over time to mean 'eye' generally and, by extension, 'a hole' or 'key point'.
笑 — bamboo radical 竹 (⺮) + 夭 (yāo, bending)
Originally written with the bamboo radical over 夭, depicting a person bending or swaying. One traditional reading is that bamboo bends in the wind like a person doubling over with laughter. The character has meant 'laugh, smile' since early times, with no major shift in meaning.