Definition

1. Verb:
   • To press with questions: To ask someone questions persistently and insistently in order to obtain information, often when the person is reluctant to speak.
   • To interrogate insistently: To question someone thoroughly and with determination, leaving no point unexamined.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Phóng viên gạn hỏi thủ tướng về vụ bê bối. (The reporter pressed the prime minister with questions about the scandal.)
  • Cô ấy gạn hỏi đứa trẻ xem ai đã lấy cái bánh. (She pressed the child with questions about who took the cake.)
  • Dù bị gạn hỏi, anh ta vẫn giữ im lặng. (Even though he was pressed with questions, he remained silent.)

Advanced Usage

• The action often implies a one-sided effort where the questioner is active and determined, while the person being questioned is passive, evasive, or secretive.
• It can be used in both formal contexts (e.g., journalism, investigations) and informal contexts (e.g., within a family).

Variants and Related Words

• Gạn (v): To decant; figuratively, to extract (information or truth) by removing unnecessary elements.
• Hỏi (v): To ask.
• Chất vấn (v): To interrogate, to question (often in an official or confrontational context).
• Tra hỏi (v): To interrogate, to examine by questioning.

Synonyms

• To grill: To question intensely and persistently.
• To pump someone for information: To try to get information from someone by asking many questions.
• To cross-examine: To question closely, especially to check answers given previously.

Related Idioms

• Gạn đục khơi trong: Literally "to decant the murky and bring up the clear"; figuratively, to seek the truth or the good essence by filtering out bad information. While not containing "gạn hỏi," it shares the root "gạn" and the concept of extracting truth.

verb

1. to press with questions