半天
bàn tiān
Pinyin
Definition
半天
-
- half of the day
- a long time
- quite a while
- midair
- CL:個|个[gè]
Character Decomposition
Idioms (20)
一人得道,鸡犬升天
- 1 lit. when a man achieves the Dao, his poultry and dogs rise to Heaven (idiom)
- 2 fig. to ride on sb else's success
- 3 Once one man gets a government position, all his cronies get in too
- 4 Once sb has cracked the problem, every Tom, Dick and Harry can do it
一个天南,一个地北
- 1 to live miles apart (idiom)
一柱擎天
- 1 lit. to support the sky as a single pillar (idiom)
- 2 fig. to take a crucial responsibility upon one's shoulders
一步登天
- 1 reaching heaven in a single bound (idiom); (esp. with negative: don't expect) instant success
一瓶子不响,半瓶子晃荡
- 1 lit. a full bottle makes no sound; a half-filled bottle sloshes (idiom)
- 2 fig. empty vessels make the most noise
Sample Sentences
秦宇走到旁边的窗户,往里看,想看个究竟。这一看,让他愣了半天都无法缓过来。
QinYu then walked to the window on the side and looked into it. He wanted to figure out what actually happened. He was taken aback by what he saw and he didn't recover from the shock until a long time had passed.
公司新来的那个实习生,我在问他正经事儿,他给我丢来一堆猥琐的熊猫,我研究了半天也没有看懂他在说什么。
I was asking about work with the new intern in my company when he sent me a bunch of panda emojis that looked sorry or something. After analyzing for half a day, I still didn’t understand his message.
首先,不管是小鲜肉也好老腊肉也好,你费劲心机撩了半天,他都无动于衷,就别期待什么铁杵成针的了,我们又不是铁匠,及时收手吧。
First of all, whether it's a tender young thing, or a slightly older and more weathered person, if, however you try and tease it out of him, he remains aloof, don't expect to grind him down, we're not blacksmiths, just stop while the going is good.
也没有什么特别的事,就觉得心里特委屈。薪水低,瑣碎的事一堆,上下班通勤时间加起來得花去大半天。
It wasn't anything in particular. I just felt very hard-done by. My salary was low, I had a load of trivial matters to handle and adding the commute to and from work, I was spending over half the day at work.
说了半天还没告诉我你看了什么恐怖电影呢?
After saying all this, you still haven't told me what horror film you saw?
我们在村子里走了半天,也没见一户人家。
We walked for half a day in the village but didn’t see a single house.
要验血、验尿、量血压,有很多检查要做,可能会花上半天的时间。
There is a blood test, a urine test, and we are going to measure your blood pressure and several exam as well. It might take you a while.
他说了半天,我还是不明白。
He's been talking for half a day and I still don't get what he's talking about.
我想帮他取一个中文名字,可是想了半天还是想不出来。
I want to give him a Chinese name, but I have been racking my brain all day and I still can't think of anything.
可是这双特超值,好多人都想要,我抢了半天才抢到。
But this pair was a steal and many people wanted them. I fought for them for awhile before I could get them.