p8nda
p8nda BETA
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伺

cì / sì
verb #38,196

Meanings

  1. 1 to wait on; to serve; to attend to

Examples

她每天伺候生病的母亲。
Tā měitiān cìhou shēngbìng de mǔqīn.
She takes care of her sick mother every day.
这台旧机器真难伺候。
Zhè tái jiù jīqì zhēn nán cìhou.
This old machine is really hard to deal with.

Tips

usage
The cì reading lives almost entirely in one word, 伺候 (to wait on, serve). Used jokingly it can mean something is high-maintenance, as with a fussy machine or a demanding guest.

Components

radical
亻 dānrénpáng
person
The side-person radical 亻 (a compressed 人, person) signals a human action here: watching, spying, or attending on someone.
phonetic
司 sī
to manage; take charge
司 (sī, to manage) supplies the sound, lightly shifted to sì. It also adds a faint flavor of overseeing or keeping watch, which matches the meaning.

Stroke Order

伺 cì