涕

Nasal discharge or "sniveling." In classical contexts, this is rarely a neutral physiological term and typically denotes the physical manifestation of intense grief or distress.

Used as a noun (nasal mucus/tears of grief). It also appears as an adverbial modifier in compounds with verbs of weeping (e.g., 涕泣, 涕哭), describing the manner of the action—weeping to the point of nasal discharge.

Distinguished from 淚 (tears from the eyes); while often paired as 涕淚, the use of 涕 alone or in combination signals a more visceral, unrestrained, or exhausted state of weeping. Distinguished from 洟 (nasal mucus), which tends toward the clinical or mundane, whereas 涕 is the emotional counterpart associated with sorrow.

Semantic variant: U+4D8F.

The register of this glyph ranges from the visceral to the literary. Depending on the tone of the text, "snot" may be too crude for courtly or poetic prose unless the author intends a derogatory or starkly raw effect.