🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

闭嘴

Pronunciation / Transliteration: bì zuǐ

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Bite-your-tongue/ˈbaɪt jɔːr tʌŋ/
verbidiomCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #4500 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"在那个尴尬的时刻,他选择闭嘴。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb
  1. 1

    To stop oneself from saying something that might cause trouble, offense, or argument.

    "She had to bite her tongue when her colleague claimed credit for her idea."
  2. 2

    To endure pain, criticism, or provocation without retaliating verbally.

    "He wanted to yell back at the critic, but he bit his tongue and remained professional."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the literal physical action of clamping one's teeth onto the tongue to prevent vocalization or expression of pain. Recorded in English usage since the late 17th century as a figurative idiom denoting enforced silence or self-restraint.

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