敬(jìng) - to respect, to revere; to offer politely (a drink, tea) in Mandarin

敬 (jìng) is reverence, the respect you owe upwards: to elders, teachers, the dead. As a single character it carries a formal, slightly old-fashioned weight that its two-syllable descendants 尊敬 and 敬爱 inherit.

Its liveliest everyday use is not abstract at all. 敬 also means to present something politely with both hands, which is why 敬酒 is to toast someone, 敬茶 is the tea a bride serves her new parents-in-law, and 敬礼 is a salute. 我敬你一杯 at a dinner table is an offer of a drink, not a philosophical statement.

The trap is reaching for 敬 where English would say respect. On its own it rarely works as a plain modern verb: 我很敬他 sounds stiff, and what you want is 我很尊敬他. Keep the bare character for toasts, salutes and set phrases such as 敬老, and let the compounds carry the abstract sense.