ドン引き
どんびき
donbiki
= being put off / recoiling in discomfort / taken aback by someone’s behavior
ドン引き (donbiki) describes the moment when someone says or does something so uncomfortable, inappropriate, or shocking that your goodwill toward them instantly evaporates — you ‘pull back’ from them mentally and emotionally. It’s the feeling of a social situation going wrong in a way that can’t easily be recovered.
Donbiki describes a reaction of recoiling or pulling away from someone due to their words or behavior — a combination of surprise, discomfort, and sudden social distance. It can be used as a noun (ドン引きした — donbiki shita — I was totally put off) or as a suru-verb (ドン引きする — donbiki suru — to be put off / to recoil). The ‘don’ (ドン) is an intensifying sound effect mimicking a heavy thud or dramatic impact, and 引き (biki) comes from 引く (hiku — to pull/withdraw). Together: a dramatic, sudden pulling-away.
Donbiki differs from 驚く (odoroku — to be surprised) and 引く (hiku, slang: to be put off, milder) in degree. Hiku (引く) alone is milder — slightly put off. Donbiki is the full version — strongly and visibly put off. The ‘don’ prefix amplifies the reaction to a sudden, dramatic level. Use it when someone’s oversharing, inappropriate joke, or unexpected behavior creates genuine discomfort rather than mild awkwardness.
ドン引き is written in katakana + hiragana to emphasize its onomatopoeic slang nature. The 引き (biki) element comes from 引く (hiku — to pull back), reflecting the visceral sense of withdrawing from someone or something uncomfortable.
Everyday use
初対面でいきなり年収を聞いてきてドン引きした。
Sho-taimen de ikinari nenshuu wo kiite kite donbiki shita.
On our first meeting they immediately asked about my income and I was totally put off.
Casual / Social Media
合コンで自分の元カノの話ずっとしてる人いてドン引き…帰りたい
Goukon de jibun no moto-kano no hanashi zutto shiteru hito ite donbiki… kaeritai
There’s someone at the mixer who keeps talking about their ex the whole time and I’m totally put off… I want to go home
Formal / Cultural context
公の場における不適切な発言は、聴衆に強い拒否反応を引き起こし、当該人物の社会的信頼を著しく損なう可能性がある。
Ooyake no ba ni okeru futekisetsu na hatsugen wa, chousha ni tsuyoi kyohi hanno wo hikiokoushi, toukai jinbutsu no shakaiteki shinrai wo ichijirushiku sokonau kanousei ga aru.
Inappropriate remarks in public settings can trigger strong negative reactions from audiences and significantly damage the individual’s social credibility.
ドン引き is essential vocabulary for understanding Japanese social dynamics, where maintaining comfortable shared atmosphere (場の空気, ba no kuuki — the air of the room) is highly valued. While Western social interaction can absorb more explicit disagreement and direct confrontation, Japanese social settings depend heavily on everyone reading the room and acting within unspoken norms. When someone causes a ドン引き, they have broken the social contract in a visible way — the atmosphere visibly collapses, and recovery is difficult.
The word appears frequently in Japanese entertainment as a comedic device. On variety shows and in manga, a character saying something wildly inappropriate to a stunned audience — followed by the audience’s collective recoil — is a standard comedic beat. The donbiki moment is the negative counterpart to the うける moment: one is the comedic success, the other is the catastrophic failure. Understanding donbiki helps learners navigate the implicit social rules that govern what kinds of humor, disclosure, or directness are acceptable in Japanese social settings.
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