争分夺秒 (zhēng fēn duó miǎo)

Character breakdown

• 争 (zhēng) · 6 strokes

  Simplified form of 爭. Depicts two hands (爫 又) grabbing the same plow.

• 分 (fēn) · 4 strokes

  Depicts a knife (刀) being used to cut two things apart (八).

• 夺 (duó) · 6 strokes

  Simplified form of 奪. Depicts a hand (寸) snatching a bird (隹). The top component was originally 衣 (clothes), depicting a person holding a bird in their clothes, but later it was reanalyzed as a phonet…

• 秒 (miǎo) · 9 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 少 represents the sound.

Usage

高考前，学生们争分夺秒地复习。

lit. fight minutes, snatch seconds (idiom); a race against time; making every second count

gāo kǎo qián ， xué shēng men zhēng fēn duó miǎo dì fù xí 。