勒 (lēi): to strap tightly

Meanings

1 to strap tightly
2 to bind

Characters

勒

lēi

to strap tightly

Examples

书包带子勒得肩膀疼。

Shūbāo dàizi lēi de jiānbǎng téng.

The backpack straps are digging into my shoulders painfully.

把口袋勒紧，别让东西掉出来。

Bǎ kǒudài lēi jǐn, bié ràng dōngxi diào chūlái.

Strap the sack tight so nothing falls out.

腰带勒得太紧了，喘不过气。

Yāodài lēi de tài jǐn le, chuǎn bu guò qì.

The belt is strapped so tight I can't breathe.

Tips

register

The lēi reading is colloquial spoken Mandarin — used when a rope, belt, strap, or tie physically digs into something. Written/literary contexts and almost every compound take the sister reading lè instead (勒令, 勒索, 勾勒, 悬崖勒马). If the sentence describes a physical strap squeezing flesh, it is almost always lēi.

Components

radical

力 lì

strength; force

Right 力 — pictograph of a flexed arm or a plow muscled into the soil, meaning strength/force. Indexing radical here. Combined with 革 the picture is a leather strap pulled tight by force — exactly the rein-in / restrain / engrave senses of 勒.

semantic

革 gé

leather; hide

Left 革 — pictograph of a stretched animal hide (head, body, four limbs). The original 勒 meant a leather bridle for a horse, so the leather radical anchors the sense. Family: 鞋 (shoe), 鞍 (saddle), 鞭 (whip) — all leather goods. The leather strap is what does the restraining.