犄角旮旯

jījiǎo gālá

noun

Meanings

HSK 4

我把家里的犄角旮旯都找遍了，也没找到钥匙。

Wǒ bǎ jiālǐ de jījiǎo gālá dōu zhǎobiàn le, yě méi zhǎodào yàoshi.

I searched every nook and cranny of the house and still couldn't find my keys.

HSK 5

这家小店藏在胡同的犄角旮旯里，很难找。

Zhè jiā xiǎo diàn cáng zài hútòng de jījiǎo gālá lǐ, hěn nán zhǎo.

This little shop is tucked away in a corner of the hutong and is hard to find.

Colloquial and northern; in Beijing speech it is often 犄角旮旯儿. 犄角 is a corner and 旮旯 a nook, so together they mean every hidden corner.

memory

旮 and 旯 are mirror images: 九 over 日, then 日 over 九, like two things wedged into a corner.

犄 jī

角 jiǎo

旮 gā

旯 lá