交代
jiāo​dài HSK5

instruct

交代 jiāo​dài
instruct verb
to give instructions, brief someone, or explain a task to be done

老师交代我们要按时完成作业。

lǎo​shī jiāo​dài wǒ​men yào àn​shí wán​chéng zuò​yè.

The teacher instructed us to finish our homework on time.

confess verb
to give an account of one's actions, explain oneself, or confess to a crime

他最终在证据面前向警方交代了自己的全部罪行。

tā zuì​zhōng zài zhèng​jù miàn​qián xiàng jǐng​fāng jiāo​dài le zì​jǐ de quán​bù zuì​xíng.

Confronted with evidence, he finally confessed all his crimes to the police.

finish verb
jocularly, to come to a bad end, to die, or to be completely ruined

要是这次任务失败，我这条命就交代了。

yào​shi zhè cì rèn​wu shī​bài, wǒ zhè tiáo mìng jiù jiāo​dài le.

If this mission fails, my life will be forfeit.

transfer verb
to hand over or transfer duties and responsibilities to a successor

他把工作交代清楚后就离职了。

tā bǎ gōng​zuò jiāo​dài qīng​chu hòu jiù lí​zhí le.

He left his job after handing over his duties clearly.

Frequency
Movie subtitles
5.72 per million appears in 3% of films
Written text
16.9 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 6
HSK 3.0
Level 5

Cross-References

Has variant

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICT
Frequency data
SUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)