TongTong
Sign in

不已 (bù yǐ) — cannot stop; endlessly; incessantly

Definition

Used as a complement after an emotion verb (感动不已、兴奋不已) to mean 'cannot stop, endlessly' — literary/written tone. Pairs with emotions; 不断 is the everyday adverb for 'continuously'.

verb
cannot stopendlesslyincessantly

Examples

  • ，不已。
    Kàn wán zhè bù diàn yǐng, guān zhòng men gǎn dòng bù yǐ.
    After watching this movie, the audience was deeply moved.
  • ，不已。
    Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā xīng fèn bù yǐ.
    Hearing this news, he was so excited he couldn't calm down.
  • ，不已。
    Huí yì qǐ wǎng shì, tā tòng kǔ bù yǐ.
    Recalling the past, she was in endless pain.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

不bùnot
已yǐstop

不 negates 已, which means stop, so the word expresses that something cannot stop.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 已 may originally have been a drawing of either a snake or a fetus.

Open 已 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6Frequency & Duration

Browse more HSK 6 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.