憋 (biē): to hold back; to suppress

Meanings

1 to hold back; to suppress
2 to feel stifled or suffocated

Characters

憋

biē

to hold back; to stifle; to suppress

Examples

他憋了半天才说出来。

Tā biē le bàntiān cái shuō chūlai.

He held it in for a long time before finally saying it.

别憋着，有什么话就说。

Bié biē zhe, yǒu shénme huà jiù shuō.

Don't bottle it up, just say what's on your mind.

我快憋不住了，厕所在哪儿？

Wǒ kuài biē búzhù le, cèsuǒ zài nǎr?

I can barely hold it in, where's the bathroom?

Tips

usage

憋 is very versatile: 憋尿 (hold in urine), 憋气 (hold your breath), 憋屈 (feel stifled/wronged). The core idea is always something being trapped inside that needs to come out.

Components

radical

心 xīn

heart; mind

Bottom heart radical — the indexing component. 憋 is fundamentally an emotional/internal state: holding the breath, suppressing speech, smothering frustration. The heart anchors all those bottled-up sensations, putting 憋 in a family with 忍 (endure), 怒 (anger), 急 (anxious).

phonetic

敝 bì

worn out; broken; my (humble)

Top 敝 supplies the sound (bì → biē, drifted within the same labial family) and a faint flavor of damaged/exhausted — fitting for the squeezed-down feeling of holding something in. Same phonetic family powers 蔽 (cover up), 弊 (harm), 鳖 (turtle).