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吃力 (chī lì) — (of a task) strenuous, laborious, requiring great effort; (of a person) exhausted, drained, struggling

Definition

吃力 describes a TASK as strenuous or a PERSON as struggling/exhausted by it. Lighter than 疲惫 (deeply drained); a verb phrase where 费劲 is also a verb meaning the same thing.

adjective
(of a task) strenuouslaboriousrequiring great effort(of a person) exhausteddrainedstruggling

Examples

  • 吃力。
    Xué zhōng wén duì tā yì diǎn r bù chī lì.
    Learning Chinese is not at all difficult for him.
  • 吃力，。
    Zhè jiàn gōng zuò tài chī lì le, wǒ kuài shòu bù liǎo le.
    This job is too strenuous; I can't handle it anymore.
  • ，吃力。
    Zǒu le zhè me cháng de lù, wǒ gǎn dào hěn chī lì.
    After walking such a long road, I feel exhausted.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

吃chībear/take
力lìeffort/strength

“吃” suggests bearing or taking, and “力” denotes effort or strength, giving the sense of strenuous effort.

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.

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.

Open 吃 →

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

力 is drawn as either an arm bending out from the side of the body or a wooden plough.

Open 力 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Emotions & Feelings

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.