吧唧 (bājī): to smack one's lips (while eati…

Meanings

1 to smack one's lips (while eating)
2 to make a squelching/squishing sound
3 (onomatopoeia) splat; smack

Characters

吧

bā

(onom.) sound element with 口

唧

jī

(onom.) chirp; squirt

Examples

他吃饭老是吧唧嘴，很不礼貌。

Tā chīfàn lǎoshì bājī zuǐ, hěn bù lǐmào.

He always smacks his lips while eating — it's very rude.

他一脚踩进泥里，吧唧一声。

Tā yī jiǎo cǎi jìn ní lǐ, bājī yī shēng.

He stepped into the mud with a squelch.

Tips

culture

吧唧嘴 (bājī zuǐ — smacking one's lips while chewing) is one of the most-cited bad table manners in mainland Chinese etiquette guides, alongside 翘二郎腿 (crossing legs at the table) and 用筷子指人 (pointing with chopsticks).

register

Both senses are colloquial. The mouth-smacking sense is sometimes pronounced bājì in dictionaries (neutral tone in CC-CEDICT). The onomatopoeia sense is the squelchy step/kiss/slap kind of sound.