死水

sǐshuǐ
noun #36,899

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 stagnant water
  2. 2 (figurative) lifeless or unchanging situation

Examples

Chítáng lǐ quán shì sǐshuǐ, wénzi hěn duō.
The pond is all stagnant water — there are lots of mosquitoes.
Zhè jiā gōngsī jiù xiàng yī tán sǐshuǐ, háo wú huólì.
This company is like a pool of stagnant water — completely lifeless.

Tips

usage
The figurative reading is extremely common — 死水 yī tán sǐshuǐ ('a pool of stagnant water') is the standard metaphor for a stagnant institution, market, or relationship.

In Pop Culture

死水 Sǐshuǐ
Dead Water
famous 1925 poem by Wen Yiduo (闻一多), using stagnant water as a metaphor for the despair of warlord-era China

Stroke Order

shuǐ