Where it sits
The smile never quite leaves, which is what separates it from plain despair.
What it doesn't mean
It can be, literally. But Emojipedia lists embarrassment, shame, a slowly sinking sense of dread and feeling overwhelmed as its main figurative uses, and the warped smile lends itself to sarcasm.
It is one of the newer common ones: approved in 2021, more than a decade after the skull, the fire and the crying faces.
What it really means
Some emoji take years to find their meaning. 🫠 arrived with one.
Melting Face was approved in Unicode 14.0 in 2021, and in September that year Google's design for it was featured on the cover of The New York Times, a rare moment of fame for a brand-new character. It shows a smiley losing its shape, sliding downwards into a puddle with its smile still on.
That smile is the point. The literal reading, heat, still works, but most people send 🫠 for the feeling of dissolving under pressure. Emojipedia lists embarrassment, shame, a slowly sinking sense of dread and being overwhelmed. You realise you have been talking on mute. The deadlines have piled up. Someone has seen the message you sent to the wrong chat. You are not crying (😭) and you are not dead (💀). You are melting, politely.
It also fits a dry, self-mocking mood. The warped smile makes it easy to use sarcastically: "great, love this for me 🫠". In that role it overlaps with 🙃, but where the upside-down face shrugs, the melting face gives in.
As one of the newer common emoji, it can still go missing on older phones, which show an empty box instead. And as with any emoji about mood, it can read oddly next to someone else's genuine bad news. Keep it for your own small disasters.
Where it comes from
- 2021
Unicode 14.0 approves Melting Face (U+1FAE0).
- September 2021
Google's design for it is featured on the cover of The New York Times.
In real life
- 'Just realised I've been on mute for the whole presentation 🫠' — embarrassment, melting in real time.
- 'Three deadlines tomorrow and the printer is broken 🫠' — overwhelmed, but still smiling, just.
- 'It's 38 degrees on the bus 🫠' — the literal sense, which still works.
Questions
Q01What does 🫠 mean?
Usually embarrassment, quiet dread or being overwhelmed, shown as a smile slowly melting away. It can also mean actual heat.
Q02Is 🫠 sad?
Not exactly. It sits between a smile and a collapse: things are going badly, and the sender is coping by melting rather than crying. It is often a little sarcastic.
Q03Could 🫠 be misread?
Older devices may not show it at all, since it was approved only in 2021. And readers who don't know it may take it as a drawing of literal heat.
Q04When was 🫠 added?
Unicode 14.0 approved it in 2021. Its code point is U+1FAE0.
Sources
- Melting Face — Emojipedia (Unicode 14.0, 2021; figurative meanings; NYT front page, September 2021).
- Emoji Versions chart — Unicode Consortium (lists it among 2021's new emoji).