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I want to know the meaning of the sentence "콧대는 하늘을 찔러."

I heard it, and I did some research. I read that it can mean, "My confidence reaches the sky," but I want to make sure this is true!

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  • welcome to stackexchange! please be sure to mark the best answer to your questions correct to help others.
    – 제이 죤스톤
    May 8, 2017 at 21:13
  • Feeling of 콧대 in this sentence is more like arrogance rather than confidence.
    – Eonil
    May 18, 2017 at 5:31

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It's pretty much a not very nice way of saying "stuck up" or "full of yourself".

The compound word 콧대 is the profile/ridge (대) of the nose (코). The "ㅅ" 받침 acts as the glue in the compound word just as in the "shore" or waters (바다) edge (가) "waters-edge" (바닷가).

하늘 is as you expect: the sky, and 찌르다 is the verb "to poke" conjugated into 찔러 which is, of course, 반말 without any honorific feeling to it.

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    Small correction: 찔리다 is "to be poked". The verb "to poke" is 찌르다, which is inflected to 찔러 here (it's a 르불규칙 verb). 찔리다 would inflect and become 찔려.
    – jick
    May 8, 2017 at 19:27
  • @jick you are so right. thank you! i've corrected the spelling in my post.
    – 제이 죤스톤
    May 8, 2017 at 21:11

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