卖力气

賣力氣

màilìqi

verb

Meanings

1 to make a living doing manual labor
2 to give it all one's got; to put one's back into something

Characters

energy / breath (here: physical effort)

Examples

他年轻时在码头卖力气，养活了一家人。

Tā niánqīng shí zài mǎtóu màilìqi, yǎnghuó le yī jiā rén.

When he was young he did manual labor at the docks and supported the whole family.

为了完成这个项目，大家都很卖力气。

Wèile wánchéng zhège xiàngmù, dàjiā dōu hěn màilìqi.

Everyone was really putting their backs into finishing this project.

Tips

usage

Two related senses: (1) literal — to earn a living by selling physical labor (often dock workers, porters, construction workers); (2) figurative — to work very hard at something, give your all. Context disambiguates. The 气 here is neutral tone (qi).

register

Colloquial. Compare with the more neutral 卖力 (màilì, 'to exert oneself') — 卖力气 with the extra 气 sounds chattier and is the spoken-language form.

Stroke Order

卖 mài

力 lì

气 qì