绞尽脑汁

絞盡腦汁

jiǎojìnnǎozhī

idiom #18,698

Meanings

1 to rack one's brains
2 to think very hard

Characters

to wring; to twist

to exhaust; completely

Examples

他绞尽脑汁也想不出答案。

Tā jiǎojìnnǎozhī yě xiǎngbuchū dá'àn.

He racked his brains but still couldn't come up with the answer.

我绞尽脑汁才写出了这篇文章。

Wǒ jiǎojìnnǎozhī cái xiěchū le zhè piān wénzhāng.

I racked my brains to write this article.

Tips

memory

Literally 'wring out all brain juice' — picture squeezing your brain like a wet towel until every last drop of thought comes out.

Stroke Order

绞 jiǎo

尽 jǐn

脑 nǎo

汁 zhī