呆

dāi

adjective HSK 5 #480

Meanings

口 (mouth) + 木 (tree) — mouth open under a tree, looking foolish

Tā dāidāi de zhàn zài nàlǐ.

He stood there blankly.

Nǐ bié fādāi le, kuài zǒu ba.

Stop spacing out, let's go.

Wǒ zài jiā dāi le yì zhěng tiān.

I stayed at home the whole day.

usage

发呆 (fādāi) means to zone out or space out. 呆 as 'to stay' is very colloquial — in formal writing, use 待 (dāi) instead.

memory

The character looks like a mouth (口) on top of a tree (木) — someone standing under a tree with their mouth open, looking foolish.

呆 dāi