bǐng / píng
verb #15,153

Meanings

  1. 1 to hold (one's breath)
  2. 2 to suppress; to hold back
  3. 3 to get rid of; to set aside

Examples

HSK 7-9
Tā bǐng zhù hūxī, yīdòngbùdòng.
He held his breath and stayed perfectly still.
HSK 7-9
Quánchǎng bǐngxī, děng zhe jiéguǒ.
The whole room held its breath, waiting for the result.

Tips

usage
The bǐng reading covers holding back and shutting out: 屏住 (to hold in), 屏息 (to hold one's breath), 屏气 (to stop breathing momentarily), and the literary 屏除 (to do away with).

Components

radical
door; single leaf
at the upper-left, contracted by one stroke in this corner, depicts a single door leaf. It anchors in the panel-and-partition idea: a 屏风 is a movable indoor screen. The radical is conventionally listed as despite the visible door shape.
phonetic
bìng
to combine; together
inside supplies the sound, bìng drifting to píng through b/p alternation. It originally pictured two people side by side, meaning to merge, an image that suits a folding screen: panels combined into one barrier.

Stroke Order

bǐng