tōu
verb HSK 5 #597

Meanings

  1. 1 to steal
  2. 2 to pilfer
  3. 3 stealthily; secretly

Examples

Yǒurén tōu le wǒ de shǒujī.
Someone stole my phone.
Xiǎo māo tōuchī le zhuōshàng de yú.
The kitten secretly ate the fish on the table.
Tā tōutōu de kàn le tā yīyǎn.
He stealthily glanced at her.

Tips

usage
can be "to steal" (东西) or "secretly" as an adverb ( = to peek, = to eavesdrop, = to laugh secretly).
culture
偷鸡不成蚀把米 - "Failed to steal a chicken and lost the rice used as bait." Means a scheme that backfires.

Components

radical
rén
person (left-side radical form of 人)
Left is the person radical, the standing side-form of - a slim two-stroke human leaning into the right side. Anchors as a human social act: stealing is something people do to each other. The radical also threads through benevolent and trust, giving a faintly ironic placement in the family of moral-conduct chars.
phonetic
yes; assent; transport (here phonetic)
Right supplies the sound - yú shifting to tōu through significant Old Chinese drift. The -phonetic series shows wide variation: shū transport, yú happy, yù to instruct, yù metaphor - all share the same right-side. Pure phonetic role; 's classical "agree, transport" meanings don't contribute to "steal".

Stroke Order

tōu