咬文嚼字 (ngaau5 man4 zoek3 zi6) — to pay excessive attention to wording. in Cantonese
ngaauˏ₅咬manˎ₄文zoek˗₃嚼ziˍ₆字Mandarin Pinyin: yao3 wen2 jiao2 zi4
Meaning of 咬文嚼字
nounto pay excessive attention to wording.
noun(lit. to bite into the literature and chew over the characters)