diū
verb HSK 5 #766

Meanings

  1. 1 to lose
  2. 2 to throw away
  3. 3 to put aside

Examples

Wǒ bǎ yàoshi diū le.
I lost my keys.
Bié bǎ lājī diū zài dìshang.
Don't throw garbage on the ground.
Tā diū le miànzi.
He lost face.

Tips

usage
has both literal (lose an object, throw away) and figurative uses: 丢脸 (lose face), 丢人 (embarrassing), 丢三落四 (forgetful/scatterbrained).
mistakes
(to lose/misplace) vs (to throw/toss). can mean either lose or throw; only means throw. When meaning "lose," use not .

Components

ideograph
丿 piě
left-falling stroke (here: marker of dropping motion)
Top falling stroke - abstract marker depicting something slipping or falling away from the body. Carries the semantic action of : a thing leaving its place. The slanted 丿 over makes a transparent "going away from you" compound. Filed under Kangxi #1 (yī), though no horizontal radical is visibly present.
semantic
to go; to leave
Bottom (to go, leave) - provides both the imagery and a faint phonetic echo. The compound reads as "something dropping and going away," matching 's senses: to lose (钱包 lost the wallet), to drop (垃圾 toss trash), to put aside, to lose face (丢脸). Standalone is one of the most common motion verbs.

Filed under radical (yī, #1) by convention. is not a separate component in , so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

diū