ǒu
verb #11,342

Meanings

  1. 1 to vomit
  2. 2 to throw up

Examples

HSK 2
Tā wéndào nàge wèidao jiù xiǎng ǒu.
She felt like vomiting when she smelled that.
HSK 6
Tā yùnchē, ǒu le hǎojǐ cì.
He got carsick and threw up several times.

Tips

usage
is often used in compounds: 呕吐 (to vomit, formal), 呕心沥血 (to pour out one's heart, idiom). On its own, is more colloquial than 呕吐.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Left-side mouth radical - pictograph of an open mouth, the small square shape. The indexing radical, doing the obvious semantic work: is to vomit, to retch (呕吐). The mouth is where the action happens. Same family of mouth-sound-expulsion characters: to spit, to roar, to shout, to cough.
phonetic
district; area
Right side supplies the sound: qū to ǒu, an attested shift in the qū / ōu / kòu phonetic series. depicts items stored within an enclosure (traditional had three inside - district, sector). Same phonetic family: Europe, seagull, to beat, to drive. Recognising unlocks the whole reading set.

Stroke Order

ǒu