Meaning
哆嗦 describes the physical action of shaking or trembling, typically due to cold, fear, or nervousness. It conveys an involuntary shaking motion of the body or limbs. This word is commonly used in spoken Chinese to describe visible trembling.
Usage
哆嗦 is frequently used in everyday conversation to describe someone shaking from cold weather or fear. It often appears with 冷得 (lěng de, 'cold until') or 吓得 (xià de, 'frightened until') to show the cause of trembling. The word carries a vivid, physical quality and is more colloquial than literary.
Examples
- 01外面太冷了，他冷得直哆嗦。, .It's too cold outside; he's shivering from the cold.
- 02她吓得浑身哆嗦，说不出话来。, .She was trembling all over from fear and couldn't speak.
Characters
Common collocations
- 冷得哆嗦shivering from cold
- 吓得哆嗦trembling from fear
- 浑身哆嗦trembling all over
- 直哆嗦trembling continuously
Antonyms
Origin
Both characters are phonetic-semantic compounds related to mouth/speech radicals, but here they form a binome specifically describing the physical manifestation of trembling. The word is considered somewhat onomatopoetic in quality.