休

• Physical rest: To pause, take a break, or stop labor or travel.
• Cessation: To stop, cease, or terminate an action.
• Withdrawal: To retire from a professional office, social role, or official duty.

// Negative Imperative (Prohibitive): Used as "do not" or "stop [doing X]." In this function, it often appears in more colloquial or personal registers than the formal prohibitive 毋 (//wú*), frequently targeting an ongoing action that is socially inappropriate or annoying.

• Contrast with 息: While both glyphs overlap in the sense of "rest" or "stop," 休 typically denotes a conscious, intentional, or structural decision to pause or cease. In contrast, 息 often carries connotations of biological or natural processes (e.g., breathing, the dying down of a sound, or the subsidence of an emotion).

// Tang-period reading: //xiou xiou* (Fanqie: 許尤).