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支吾

Pronunciation: /ʈ͡ʂɻ̩⁵⁵ u³⁵/

“支吾” is a Chinese word. Its 8 meanings in English:

verb

  1. to falter; to prevaricate; to equivocate
  2. to deal with a person just for the occasion
  3. to prop up; to support
  4. to resist; to defy; to oppose
  5. to handle
  6. to divert oneself from loneliness
  7. to hesitate

adjective

  1. in a predicament

Etymology

The semantic development was “to support > to resist; to defy > to cope with; to deal with > to (fail to) resist > to stall off; to boggle > to falter; to equivocate”. All other senses are basically obsolete in the modern language.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.