白費唇舌

to whistle down the wind / to waste one's breath (idiom)

white / snowy / pure / bright / empty / blank / plain / clear / to make clear / in vain / gratuitous / free of charge / reactionary / anti-communist / funeral / to stare coldly / to write wrong character / to state / to explain / vernacular / spoken lines in opera

to waste (one's energy etc)

surname Fei

to cost / to spend / fee / wasteful / expenses

lip

variant of 唇[chun2]

to argue needlessly / to waste time explaining

argument / words / lips and tongue

used in 喇舌[la3 ji1] to transcribe the Taiwanese word for "tongue"

tongue