龟毛

龜毛
guīmáo
adjective

Meanings

  1. 1 (coll.) fussy; nitpicking
  2. 2 indecisive; finicky
  3. 3 neurotic about details

Examples

Tā mǎi dōngxi hěn guīmáo, tiāo le yī gè xiǎoshí.
He's so fussy when shopping — he spent an hour picking.
Bié zhème guīmáo, chàbuduō jiù xíng le.
Don't be so nitpicky, good enough is good enough.

Tips

register
From Taiwanese Hokkien (Tai-lo: ku-moo), now common across Chinese-language internet. Originally a Buddhist phrase 龟毛 'turtle hair, rabbit horns' — things that don't exist — but in modern slang it just means a fussy, hard-to-please person.
memory
Picture someone splitting hairs about a turtle — turtles don't have hair, so caring about turtle-hair details is the ultimate nitpick.

Stroke Order

guī
máo