反复推敲

反復推敲

fǎnfù-tuīqiāo

idiom

Meanings

1 to weigh and polish repeatedly
2 to mull over again and again
3 to carefully refine

Characters

Examples

HSK 4

写文章要反复推敲，不能一气写完就交。

Xiě wénzhāng yào fǎnfù-tuīqiāo, bùnéng yíqì xiě wán jiù jiāo.

You have to polish an essay repeatedly; you can't just dash it off and hand it in.

HSK 7-9

这份合同经过反复推敲，每个条款都很严谨。

Zhè fèn hétong jīngguò fǎnfù-tuīqiāo, měi gè tiáokuǎn dōu hěn yánjǐn.

This contract has been refined again and again; every clause is airtight.

Tips

history

推敲 ('push' / 'knock') comes from Tang poet 贾岛 agonizing over whether 推 or 敲 fit better in a line of verse. 反复推敲 extends that image to any careful, iterative polishing.

Stroke Order

反 fǎn

复 fù

推 tuī

敲 qiāo