吃光 (chī guāng) — to eat up, to finish all the food | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A resultative verb meaning 'eat up / finish all of' — emphasizes that nothing is left. Often appears in 把-constructions, as in the examples.

verb

to eat upto finish all the food

Examples

吃光。
Tā bǎ zhuō shàng de cài dōu chī guāng le.
He ate up all the dishes on the table.
，吃光。
Bié làng fèi, bǎ zhè xiē mǐ fàn chī guāng.
Don't waste; finish all this rice.
吃光。
Hái zi men hěn kuài jiù bǎ dàn gāo chī guāng le.
The children quickly ate up the cake.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

补充bǔchōngVerb + complement

An action followed by its result or direction.

吃 eat and 光 empty combine to mean eat until nothing is left.

Characters in this word

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

口乞吃

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

乞

乞qǐ吃chī

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

吃 combines 口 (mouth) with 乞, which gives the sound; it originally wrote a word meaning to stutter.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

火火huǒfire
卩卩jiékneeling person

The shape 光 places 火 (fire) above 卩 (a kneeling person), showing fire over the head and the shining of light.

Appears in

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