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不惜 (bù xī) — to spare no effort or expense; not hesitate (to do sth)

Definition

不惜 means 'not hesitate to' spend or sacrifice, often followed by a cost (代价, 一切). Contrast with 舍得 ('willing to part with') and 舍不得 ('reluctant to part with') — 不惜 frames the cost as already given, while 舍得/舍不得 center on the speaker's willingness.

verb
to spare no effort or expensenot hesitate (to do sth)
Easily confused

Examples

  • ，不惜。
    Wèi le chéng gōng, tā bù xī rèn hé dài jià.
    To achieve success, he spares no cost.
  • 不惜。
    Zhè ge gōng sī bù xī zhòng jīn pìn qǐng zhuān jiā.
    This company spares no expense to hire experts.
  • 不惜。
    Tā bù xī xī shēng xiū xi shí jiān wán chéng xiàng mù.
    She does not hesitate to sacrifice rest time to complete the project.

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
惜xīspare

不 ('not') with 惜 ('spare') means 'not spare', hence not hesitate to spend or do something.

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 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
忄Written in full as心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
昔
昔xī惜⁰xī
Same sound today

惜 has 忄, the heart, and 昔, which gives the sound. 昔 also points to the past or an ending, so the feeling is about something past.

Open 惜 →
Appears in
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