喘 (chuǎn): to pant; to gasp for breath

Meanings

1 to pant; to gasp for breath

Characters

喘

chuǎn

to pant; to gasp for breath

Examples

跑完步他喘得厉害。

Pǎo wán bù tā chuǎn de lìhai.

He was panting heavily after the run.

爬到山顶，我累得直喘。

Pá dào shāndǐng, wǒ lèi de zhí chuǎn.

By the time I reached the summit, I was gasping non-stop.

让我喘口气再说。

Ràngwǒ chuǎn kǒuqì zàishuō.

Let me catch my breath first.

Tips

usage

喘口气 (chuǎn kǒu qì) literally means 'gasp a breath' but is commonly used figuratively to mean 'take a break / get some breathing room' — 最近太忙了，都没时间喘口气 (Been so busy lately, haven't had time to catch my breath).

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Mouth radical on the left — the indexing radical. It supplies the meaning: 喘 is the gasping/panting that comes through the mouth. Same radical heads a huge family of mouth-actions and sound-words (吃, 喊, 唱, 叫), and here it firmly marks 喘 as something done with the breath.

phonetic

耑 duān

tip; sprout

耑 (duān) supplies the sound, drifting initial and tone to chuǎn. The same phonetic stem feeds 端 (extremity, proper) and 揣 (estimate). In 喘 it is purely sonic — the picture is mouth + sprout-shape, and only the 口 carries semantic weight.