胡诌 (hú zhōu) — to talk nonsense; to make up wild stories; to s… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

胡诌 means 'to talk nonsense' or 'make up wild stories' — casual, slightly dismissive, implies the speaker thinks it's untrue.

verb

to talk nonsenseto make up wild storiesto spin lies

Examples

胡诌，。
Bié tīng tā hú zhōu, tā de gù shi dōu shì biān de.
Don't listen to his nonsense — his stories are all made up.
胡诌？。
Nǐ yòu zài hú zhōu shén me? gēn běn méi zhè huí shì.
What are you babbling about again? There's no such thing.
胡诌，。
Tā hú zhōu le yí dà duī lǐ yóu, méi rén xiāng xìn.
He fabricated a whole bunch of reasons; nobody believed him.

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.

胡húwildly

诌zhōumake up

胡 means wildly or absurdly, and 诌 means to make up, so together they mean nonsense talk.

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

⺼Written in full as肉ròumeat

Sound part声符shēngfú

古

古gǔ胡hú

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

胡 combines 古, which points to its sound, with ⺼ (肉), meaning meat or flesh.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

Communication & Speech

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