字斟句酌

zìzhēnjùzhuó

idiom #51,873

Meanings

Zhè fèn shēngmíng tā zì zhēn jù zhuó, gǎi le hǎo jǐ biàn.

He weighed every word of the statement and rewrote it several times.

Wàijiāo cílìng bìxū zì zhēn jù zhuó.

Diplomatic language has to be phrased with great care.

memory

斟 and 酌 both mean 'to pour (wine) carefully' — together they carry the sense of deliberation. Literally: 'pour each character, measure each phrase.'

字 zì

斟 zhēn

句 jù

酌 zhuó