刺 (cī): whoosh; whizz (sound of a sudde…

Meanings

1 whoosh; whizz (sound of a sudden quick motion)
2 rip; tear (sharp sliding sound)

Characters

刺

cī

whoosh; whizz (sound of a sudden quick motion)

Examples

刺的一声，火柴划着了。

Cī yī shēng, huǒchái huázháo le.

With a hiss, the match struck alight.

他刺地滑了一跤。

Tā cī dehuá le yī jiāo.

He went 'whoosh' and took a tumble.

Tips

register

This cī reading is purely onomatopoeic — the sound of a match striking, fabric tearing, a tire deflating, someone slipping. Almost always followed by 地 or 的 plus the action verb. The main reading 刺 (thorn, to pierce) is the one you'll meet 99% of the time; this cī is colloquial color, mostly in narration.

Components

radical

刂 lìdāopáng

knife (right-form)

Knife radical inherited from the main 刺 reading. For this onomatopoeic cī sense it carries no semantic load — the character is reused as a sound-tag.

phonetic

朿 cì

thorn

Same thorn graph as the main reading — but here the character is borrowed purely for sound. The cī reading doesn't connect to the thorn etymology at all; it's a phonetic loan capturing the hissing noise of sudden motion.