1.
to have a bad experience; to suffer; to go through something unpleasant
To experience something negative or unpleasant, often something one did not expect or deserve. Almost always used with a negative modifier describing the type of hardship.
ひどい目に遭った。
I had a terrible experience.
旅行先でとんでもない目に遭った。
I had an awful experience at my travel destination.
詐欺に遭って、散々な目に遭った人の話を聞いて、自分も気をつけようと思った。
After hearing the story of someone who was scammed and went through a terrible ordeal, I decided to be more careful myself.
The core expression is 〜目に遭う, where 目 means "experience" and 遭う means "to encounter." It is almost exclusively used for negative experiences. The type of bad experience is specified by a modifier before 目.
COMMON PATTERNS:
- ひどい目に遭う: to have a terrible experience
- 散々な目に遭う: to go through a miserable ordeal
- とんでもない目に遭う: to have an outrageous experience
- 怖い目に遭う: to have a frightening experience
- 痛い目に遭う: to suffer painful consequences
SIMILAR EXPRESSIONS:
- 目に遭わせる: to put someone through a bad experience — the causative form, meaning to inflict hardship on someone
- 被害に遭う: to suffer damage; to be victimized — more formal, emphasizes concrete harm
- 苦労する: to struggle; to have a hard time — emphasizes prolonged effort rather than a discrete bad event