Taxonomy of meanings for 歇:　　

Additional information about 歇

說文解字: 【歇】，息也。 〔小徐本無「也」。〕 一曰：气越泄。从欠、曷聲。 【許謁切】

Criteria
• STOP
  

  1. The standard current word for ceasing in an activity is zhǐ 止 (ant. xíng 行 "carry on with"), and this word can to any concrete or abstract activity; the ceasing may be final or temporary.

  2. Definitive discontinuation, often of inanimate processes, is yǐ 已 (ant. zuò 作 "break into action"). See FINISH.

  3. Bà 罷 is to deliberately discontinue a course of action one is embarked on, particularly a military action.

  4. Ceasing in a human activity, for a while, is xí 息 and the somewhat rarer xiū 休 (all ant. zuò 作 "break into action").

  5. Jué 絕 (ant. jì 繼 "continue") is to disrupt one's current (human) activity, and fèi 廢 (ant. qín 勤 "continue to make a serioues effort") is to discontinue such an acitivity permanently.

  6. Shě 舍 (often negated) is to relent in a certain activity.

  7. Chuò 輟 (ant.* láo 勞 "put in a continued honest effort") is temporary discontinuation of human action.

  8. Zhì 滯 can be used to refer to the involuntary discontinuation in an activity.

  9. Xiē1 歇 refers to the discontinuation of a process (like that of worrying).

• REST
  

  1. The current general word for resting is xí 息 (ant. zuò 作 "work").

  2. Xiū 休 (ant. láo 勞 "work hard") refers to brief break in a working process.

  3. Yàn 晏 (ant. qín 勤 "work assiduously") refers to relaxing at home.

  4. Qì 憩 (ant. xīn 辛 "work strenuously until exhaustion") is an elevated poetic word for resting.

  NB: Xiē 歇 is post-Han.

• ARISE
  

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

  [INCHOACTIVE/PERFECTIVE]

  1. The most current general word for something arising is probably qǐ 起 (ant. zhǐ 止 "cease to exist").

  [GENERAL]

  2. Méng 萌 is inchoative and refers to the initial stage of arising.

  [INCHOATIVE]

  3. Shēng 生 (ant. miè 滅 "be extinguished (as dinosaurs)") refers to the coming into existence of something which did not previously exist.

  [PERFECTIVE]

  4. Xīng 興 (ant. xí 息 "cease to be virulent") and fā 發 refer to something moving from an "incubatory" state to a state of manifest "virulence" and full development.

  [HIGH-DEGREE], [PERFECTIVE]

  5. Chū 出 (NB: rù 入 cannot be used as an antonym for this meaning.) refers to something that pre-exists emerging or moving from an initial state of hiddenness or non-obviousness to a state of manifest visibility (in analogy with the basic meaning of the word "to come out").

  [SPECIFIC]

  6. Zuò 作 (ant.* xiē 歇 "cease to exist, cease to be active, cease to happen") typically refers to something happening or arising for the first time, but the word can also refer to the emergence of persons like sages.

  [ORIGINAL], [SPECIFIC]

  NB: This group needs to be viewed together with BEGIN, and the line between the two is by no means always clear.

Word relations
• Synon: (STOP)竭/EXHAUST Jié 竭 (ant. yíng 盈 "leave plenty of something") typically refers to the using up of what one has in one, or what one owns.