绞尽脑汁

jiǎo jìn nǎo zhī

to rack one’s brains

Character by character

绞jiǎo
wring

尽jìn
dry

脑nǎo
brain

汁zhī
juice

为了给新店起个好名字，他绞尽脑汁，几天都没睡好。

He racked his brains for days over a good name for the new shop and barely slept.

Tone: neutral.

Often 为了… 绞尽脑汁 or 绞尽脑汁也想不出…. A vivid exaggeration, at home in speech and writing; the more colloquial version is 想破了脑袋.

Learn this in Lesson 220 · HSK 9+: 对联、灯谜与飞花令 (Couplets, riddles and poem games)

A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.