Chinese word

呛

Pronunciation

Pinyinqiāng

Meaning

  • verbchoke

Example

喝汤时我被呛了一下。hē tāng shí wǒ bèi qiāng le yí xià

I choked while drinking soup.

Illustration for 呛 (choke)

More examples

切辣椒的时候那刺激的气味把我呛得眼泪直流。qiē là jiāo de shí hòu nà cì jī de qì wèi bǎ wǒ qiāng de yǎn lèi zhí liú

While cutting chili peppers, the pungent smell made me choke and tears streamed down my face.

Core concept

A sharp irritation in the mouth or throat suddenly brings on coughing, whether the stimulus affects the speaker or another person.

Common phrases

  • 被呛到bèi qiàng dào

    choke

  • 呛得厉害qiāng de lì hài

    choke badly

Similar words

噎yē: Have food lodged in the throat so that swallowing becomes difficult and breathing may become hard.
咳嗽ké sòu: Cough as a reaction to irritation in the breathing passage.
窒息zhì xī: Lose the ability to breathe when too little air reaches the lungs.

Definition in Chinese

指因吸入热气、汤汁、烟雾或辛辣气味而突然发生咳嗽或喉部刺激，也可用作使他人发生这种反应的及物动词。zhǐ yīn xī rù rè qì tāng zhī yān wù huò xīn là qì wèi ér tū rán fā shēng ké sòu huò hóu bù cì jī yě kě yòng zuò shǐ tā rén fā shēng zhè zhǒng fǎn yìng de jí wù dòng cí

Word origin

呛 (qiāng, "to choke") is formed from 口 (kǒu, "mouth") + 仓 (cāng, "storehouse"), with 口 pointing to the bodily area and 仓 supplying the sound.

Usage tips

  • In the causative pattern, the substance or person that triggers the reaction is the subject and the affected person is the object, so the sentence roles identify who caused the trouble.

Other meanings

  • make someone chokeverb
  • cough and splutterverb

Related words

  • 呛味qiāng wèipungencynoun
  • 呛水qiāng shuǐchoke on waterverb

Word lists with this word