卷 (juǎn): to roll up; to curl

Meanings

1 to roll up; to curl
2 to sweep up; to engulf
3 a roll
4 classifier for small rolled-up things (wad of bills, reel of film)

Characters

卷

juǎn

to roll up; a roll

Examples

把袖子卷起来。

Bǎ xiùzi juǎn qǐlái.

Roll up your sleeves.

买一卷纸巾。

Mǎi yī juǎn zhǐjīn.

Buy a roll of paper towels.

风把树叶卷起来了。

Fēng bǎ shùyè juǎn qǐlái le.

The wind swept up the leaves.

Tips

mistakes

卷 has two readings: juǎn (3rd tone, 'to roll up / a roll') and 卷 juàn (4th tone, 'scroll / volume / exam paper'). Rolling actions and physical rolls take juǎn (卷起来, 春卷, 胶卷); books, scrolls and exam papers take juàn (试卷, 卷宗).

culture

内卷 ('involution') exploded as internet slang around 2020 — toxic over-competition where everyone works harder but nobody gets ahead. The counter-trend is 躺平 ('lying flat'). A serial overachiever is a 卷王 ('grind king'); burnout-quitters say 卷不动 ('can't keep grinding').

Components

phonetic

龹

rolled-up bundle shape

Top component (also atop 拳, 眷, 券) supplies the sound juàn/juǎn. Originally pictured hands wrapping rice — the gesture of bundling, evolving into 'roll up'. The standalone glyph 龹 has no modern reading on its own; it survives only as this shared top piece. Indexed under Kangxi #26 卩 by tradition; the radical isn't visibly present in the modern form.

semantic

㔾 jié

kneeling person; sealed shape

Bottom 㔾 — a curved kneeling-figure form related to 卩, depicting a body bent into a curve. Fits the 'roll up, curl' meaning: the body's own folded posture echoes the rolled scroll. Together with the bundling hand on top, the whole character pictures something gathered and folded inward.