欲言又止

yù yán yòu zhǐ

to start to say something, then hold back

Character by character

欲yù
want

言yán
speak

又yòu
then

止zhǐ
stop

她看了我一眼，欲言又止。

She glanced at me, almost said something, then stopped.

Tone: neutral.

A favourite of novels and TV dramas: a sign someone is hiding something.

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