破防pò fáng

Defenses broken

wǒ pò fáng le.我破防了。That got me.

破防 means your emotional guard just broke: something moved you to tears, hurt you or got to you more than you expected.

Took off: 2021
Started in: Online games
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

The literal meaning is “break the defense”. It can be good or bad: a touching video and a cruel comment can both make you 破防. 破大防 is the strong version.

It is close to the English “that one got me”.

How people use it

It is now an everyday word online. People also use it for anger: 他破防了 can mean “he lost his temper” after losing an argument or a game.

里昂

昨天的球赛你看了吗？
zuó tiān de qiú sài nǐ kàn le ma?
Did you watch the game yesterday?
别提了，最后一秒输了
bié tí le, zuì hòu yì miǎo shū le
Don’t remind me. We lost in the last second.
我也看了，真的破防了
wǒ yě kàn le, zhēn de pò fáng le
I watched it too. That one really got me.
我到现在还没缓过来
wǒ dào xiàn zài hái méi huǎn guò lai
I still haven’t gotten over it.

More examples

看到这个视频，我一下子破防了。
kàn dào zhè gè shì pín, wǒ yí xià zi pò fáng le.
I watched this video and just broke down.
他说的那句话让我彻底破防。
tā shuō de nà jù huà ràng wǒ chè dǐ pò fáng.
What he said really got to me.

For the word itself and how to reply to it, see 破防 in the slang dictionary.

Where it came from

It comes from online games, where an attack 破防 when it breaks through a character’s armor. 咬文嚼字 notes the gaming source, but nobody has traced the first game or player.

In 2021 people began using it for feelings, and it was everywhere that year. 咬文嚼字 put 破防 on its list of the ten most popular phrases of 2021, and the national language monitoring center ranked it fourth among the internet phrases of the year.

The original. There is no single image; the word came from game text. The Paper reported the 2021 list. The Paper (in Chinese)