剐 (guǎ): to cut flesh from the bone as p…

Meanings

1 to cut flesh from the bone as punishment
2 to scrape

Characters

剐

guǎ

to cut flesh; to scrape

Examples

HSK 7-9

千刀万剐是古代极刑之一。

Qiāndāowànguǎ shì gǔdài jíxíng zhīyī.

Death by a thousand cuts was one of the most severe punishments in ancient times.

HSK 7-9

他的腿被铁丝网剐破了。

Tā de tuǐ bèi tiěsīwǎng guǎ pò le.

His leg was scraped and torn by the barbed wire.

Tips

history

剐 most famously appears in 千刀万剐 (death by a thousand cuts), also called 凌迟, a historical form of execution involving multiple cuts to the body before death. It was abolished in China in 1905.

Components

radical

刂 dāo

knife (right-side radical form of 刀)

Right knife radical, the standing form of 刀 when on the right. As the indexing radical it carries the literal meaning: 剐 was the imperial death-by-a-thousand-cuts punishment, flesh sliced from bone. Same radical drives 切 to cut, 割 to slash, 刺 to stab, 削 to peel.

phonetic

呙 guō

bone fragment

Left 呙 supplies the sound, guō shifting to guǎ via tone change. Originally this slot held 咼, picturing a bone stripped of flesh, so it also adds a faint flavour of scraping bone clean. Same phonetic frames 锅 pot, 蜗 snail, 涡 whirlpool.