启齿 (啟齒) qǐchǐ

1. qǐchǐ verb to bring up a subject; to start talking
   Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
   Notes: (CC-CEDICT '啟齒'; Guoyu '啟齒' v 2; Mathews 1931 '啟齒', p. 71)
2. qǐchǐ verb to smile
   Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
   Notes: (Guoyu '啟齒' v 1)

Contained in

• 羞于启齿(羞於啟齒) to be too shy to speak one's mind
• 难以启齿(難以啟齒) to be too embarrassed to mention sth; to find it hard to speak about sth

Word is mentioned most frequently in

Truncated for common words

• 第二回 Chapter 57 Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 — count: 2
• 卷二十一 Scroll 21 Wenxuan 文選 — count: 2
• 卷六十五 列傳第十五: 高士廉 長孫無忌 Volume 65 Biographies 15: Gao Shilian, Zhangsun Wuji Old Book of Tang 舊唐書 — count: 1
• 第九十三回 Chapter 93 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 1
• 卷一百八十九上 列傳第一百三十九上: 儒學上 Volume 189 Biographies 139: Confucian Scholars 1 Old Book of Tang 舊唐書 — count: 1
• 《徐無鬼》 Xu Wu-gui Zhuangzi 莊子 — count: 1
• 第九十八回 Chapter 98 Water Margin 水滸傳 — count: 1
• 卷四百七十二 列傳第二百三十一 姦臣二 蔡京弟:卞 子:攸 翛 族子:崈 趙良嗣 張覺 郭藥師 Volume 472 Biographies 231: Treacherous Officials 2 - Cai Jing and younger brother: Bian, sons: You, Shu, descendant: Chong, Zhao Liangsi, Zhang Jue, Guo Yaoshi History of Song 宋史 — count: 1

Collocations

• 不好启齿 (不好啟齒) 只是不好啟齒的 — Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢, 第二回 Chapter 57 — count: 2