Example sentences
xiū休xi息yī一huì会er儿。
Rest a while.
nǐ你gāi该xiū休xi息le了。
You should rest.
About this word
休 and 息 both point at rest, with 息 carrying the older sense of breath, so 休息 is "to rest and catch your breath". It takes no object: 休息一下, 休息休息, 你应该多休息. Chinese uses it for breaks of any size, from a pause over coffee to a full night's sleep, and the school word 课间休息 means "recess". The breathing sense of 息 also sits in 呼吸, "to breathe".
The story behind the character
休
休 is a person leaning against a tree. 亻 on the left, 木 on the right, and the oracle bone shows the same scene: a figure with its back against a trunk. Xu Shen wrote 休, 息止也, "to rest, to stop." Before chairs and air conditioning, shade under a tree was where you stopped. 休息 is still that tree.
息
息 is 自 over 心. 自 here is a drawing of a nose, and it only later got borrowed to mean oneself. So 息 is breath traveling from the nose down to the heart, which is how the ancients pictured it. Xu Shen wrote 息, 喘也, "to pant." 休息 is the nose and the heart settling down.