喘 不 过 气 来

chuǎn bu guò qì láidictionary entry

to be unable to breathe

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-31fe3f61c0b88874. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

喘不過氣來喘不过气来 [chuan3 bu5 guo4 qi4 lai2] /to be unable to breathe/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 喘不過氣來

喘
chuǎn
to gasp / to pant / asthma
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
过
guò
to cross / to go over / to pass (time) / to celebrate (a holiday) / to live / to get along / excessively / too-
guo
(experienced action marker)
Guō
surname Guo
气
qì
gas / air / smell / weather / to make angry / to annoy / to get angry / vital energy / qi
来
lái
to come / (used as a substitute for a more specific verb) / hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[huí lai]) / ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zì gǔ yǐ lái]) / for the past (amount of time) / (prefix) the coming ... / the next ... (as in 來世|来世[lái shì]) / (between two verbs) in order to / (after a round number) approximately / (used after 得[dé] to indicate possibility, as in 談得來|谈得来[tán de lái], or after 不[bù] to indicate impossibility, as in 吃不來|吃不来[chī bu lái])

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.