(bì zuǐ) - shut up, close your mouth in Mandarin
bìzuǐTraditional: 閉嘴
Translation
shut up, close your mouth
Word origin
A two-character word: 闭 'to close, to shut' (the simplified gate radical 门 enclosing 才) plus 嘴 'mouth' (the mouth radical 口 with a phonetic element). Together 闭嘴 literally means 'close the mouth', that is, shut up.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 闭 (门 gate + 才) + 嘴 (口 mouth + phonetic)
Stroke order
闭
嘴
Examples
！。
Shut up! I'm thinking.
，。
He told me to shut up, and I was very angry.
？
Can you be quiet for one minute?
！
You shut up!
。
He kept his mouth shut and said nothing.
闭嘴 (bì zuǐ) literally means close mouth. 闭 (bì) means to close or shut, and 嘴 (zuǐ) means mouth. Used as a direct command it is the Mandarin equivalent of shut up and carries a rude or sharp tone. It can be softened slightly in certain contexts (请闭嘴, please be quiet) but generally signals frustration or anger. Common in colloquial speech and dialogue-heavy contexts.
Add to review queue
Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.
Go to my review queueThis word is part of lesson 11.