Meaning:
“捂” means to “cover up,” and “脸” means “face.” This term, often represented by an emoji of a small yellow face covered by a hand, is frequently used by Chinese netizens to express feelings of disappointment, frustration, awkwardness, shock or sarcasm. Occasionally, people type the characters inside brackets instead of the emoji.
Example:
A: 今天你的股票怎么样？
Jīntiān nǐ de gǔpiào zěnme yàng?
How are your stocks doing today?
B: [捂脸][捂脸]
[wǔliǎn][wǔliǎn]
(Covering up my face)
Note: Here it means “My stocks are performing poorly.”
(First editor: Debra Li)